I've been wanting to upgrade my lights for some time now. I liked the little
MH/PC fixture I had, and it had served me well for the last 2 years, but it just wasn't bright enough for me on a 24" deep tank. So, I decided an upgrade was in order. Earlier this week, I went by one of our local club members houses who is upgrading from a 120 to a 220 and picked up his canopy and lights. So, I now have 2 400w
MH and 2
T5 actinics mounted in a canopy. Light shock will be a real issue here, so I will be slowly ramping up the lighting over the next couple of weeks. I must say though, that the tank looks SOOOOO different with all that light. The 2 54w
T5s with individual reflectors totaly put my old 2 96w
PCs to shame, and the 400s absolutely blow away the old 150w
HQIs (no surprise there...) I had never really given any thought to having a canopy before, as I kinda liked the open top look, but I find I really like the way it looks with a canopy. It focuses your attention on the tank, and not all the gear around it. Anyway, here's a before and after shot.
Before (a few months old):
And now, (yeah, yeah, I need to clean my glass, I wasn't ecpecting to take a
FTS last night):
