Retro fit for 125 gallon

vvhoisjohngalt · #1 09/27/2006, 03:29 PM

alright ive been lurking here for probably a month now.

ive got the typhoon III RODI for the water. havent added any fish since i moved the tank (established for 1.5 years) only fish are 2 blue w/yellow tail damsels. got some hermits for cleaning slowly adding about 10 every 10 days or so pop is now 30. added more live rock so im about 125 lbs now. ordered a ASM G3 which will be up and running in a couple days.

what i need to do is get better lighting. ive got about 120w of white light and 60w of blue. this lighting is the flourescent type in the black strips 24"x3 of them.

i want to do a retro lighting but i have questions on how hard its going to be to add it to my canopy. canopy is oak and 6" above the glass tops. canopy is slotted. im slowly moving to reef tank. so im thinking 2x175 MH and maybe T5 4x54w?

what am i going to need to buy to make this happen?

oh...tank parameters 0 amm 0 nitrite 10 nitrate 1.023 salinity 78 degrees and phos is .2-.4.

theatrus · #2 09/27/2006, 03:36 PM

How close would your canopy top be from the water? I'd pull the glass tops on the tank when upgrading the lighting. 6" is ok for MH, but is stretching it, though with only 175W it shouldn't be a problem.

vvhoisjohngalt · #3 09/27/2006, 04:23 PM

canopy top is 6" from the water surface. its a matching oak top to the bottom of the stand so i want to keep the canopy if at all possible. are you saying that MH is too warm for that close to the water?

how exactly do the "retro" fits actually work. i have no talent when it comes to DIY with anything electronic.

Bradco · #4 09/27/2006, 04:34 PM

Mind if I ask is your tank 72' long and if so, where you got the canopy as I have been looking for one for my AGA tank, I have aquactinics t5 lighting that I am hoping to put inside, right now it is about 4 inches above the water on stands

smcnally · #5 09/27/2006, 05:13 PM

If you are going to add MH, I would go with 3 bulbs. MH bulbs really only have a 2'x2' spread on a tank that tall. I would either reccomend 3 175's if you are going with a softy tank, or 3 250's if you are going full SPS. I went in the middle and went with a 175 on each end with a 250 in the middle and I keep everything in there. I also run 2 48" T-5s for actinic supplimintation. Here's a picture of my setup.

vvhoisjohngalt · #6 09/28/2006, 11:26 AM

bradco-its a custom made canopy sorry for no help

smcnally-beautiful tank thanks for the pic. my canopy is totally different than that can has a lid that you raise from the top...i may have to mod it somehow to get those lights in there.

so retro fitting lights looks pretty easy then just screw them into the wood and connect the cords are you are done.

nother question for folks. my live rock has a bunch of that coraline on it but some of its starting to turn white after a few weeks now...is that cause i dont have enough light?

84jeepjohn · #7 09/28/2006, 04:21 PM

I'm currious about this too, IF your tank is a 60" long one. I may be getting one dirt cheap (or I'd have gon with a 4 or 6 foot tank)
But I'm not sure what to do on lighting. I was looking at all T-5's

smcnally · #8 09/28/2006, 05:27 PM

Your coraline can turn white (bleach out) from too much light. But most likely it is just die off from starting a new tank. It's normal.

vvhoisjohngalt · #9 09/29/2006, 02:07 PM

thanks. i was just thinking that it wasnt getting enough light. seems like the hermits like to eat the bleached stuff cause they are all over the live rock but not so much on the base rock that has some small amounts of hair algae on it.