lighting upgrade

[Boris]

I am looking at upgrading my lighting on my 29 gal reef tank. Right now I have been using 3 65 watt PCs but they are beginning to fail. Rather than spend money for new ballasts and bulbs I am thinking of switching to a 150 watt MH pendant. The corals have been thriving (even though I have been down one light for the past 4 months) so I am thinking that 150 would be fine for the 29.

Any help here, the voice of experience?

[Phurst]

That should certainly be sufficient. Be careful to slowly ramp up your photoperiod so as to not photo-shock your corals with the new high intensity light. Were you going to have actinic suplimentation, or run a 14k or 20k MH?

[lReef lKeeper]

if you are gonna go with a halide pendant, i would go ahead and buy a 250w. with this choice you will not have to place a more light demanding coral in the top half of the tank. you will be able to keep acros anywhere in the tank that you want them.

[Boris]

I thought about going with a 250 watt but I don't want to buy a chiller too.

I was also looking at the Tek Light T5s the 24 " pendant with 4 24 watt bulbs. Less heat, less power usage (hey, global warming is here) but would that be enough light for the tank? The Tek Light is more $ than some MH pendants but would be less $ down the road.

[Boris]

By the way, on many of the catalog sites, they insist that their lights must be used over a completely covered aquarium. Is that the norm? Most I have seen are uncovered, using all different lighting systems. Are they just covering their butt? I do see some risk involved but do most of you use covered aquariums?

[lReef lKeeper]

no one i know covers their aquarium. it makes gas exchange to difficult.

[wwest]

I have a 65w power compact actinic, a 10k 65w power compact and a 150 retro kits 10k MH. That right now is a challenge to mount and still have room for your arm and rocks. Oh yea i also have a 29gallon. I would recommend using a 150, the heat from that is pretty great and my corals love it! I run my actinic for 12 hours a day my 10 PC for 10 hours and my MH for 5 hours a day.

I also agree with not covering the tank. The reason they say that is because if your MH has been running for awhile and you reach your arm in the tank ( which i wouldn't recommend while the MH is on) and you splash the bulb the bulb might bust and shock or cut you. Theres a lot of heat coming off those bulbs and i make sure my hood is shut when the MH is on.

[CarmieJo]

I am really happy with my Solaris. Look What UPS Brought! They are more expensive than MH or T5 but they are much more energy efficient and they don't heat up your tank!. In fact, my chiller has not come on since I got my Solaris. The LED's last a really long time too.

[popeye]

I use a tek t5 fixture over my 50gal tank (36") and am quite pleased with it. No excess heat and it is bright as heck! I am getting great growth on my stony stuff and my softies are doing good also.. I will say that I plan on going with a 175mh pendant over a 40 gal corner tank that I have (20k) but that is goin to be a shallow reef all acro tank...

[Boris]

Thanks, good stuff to think about. I am also thinking about a simple PC, dual 65 watts which my LFS suggested was plenty of light for what I have growing.

[NaClFinatic]

I did put glass lenses in my hood to separate the lighting, but they are a few inches above the water and there are fans that blow accross both sides of the glass to keep the heat out and good gas exchange. The hood hardly even gets warm. Of course I just started my tank so can't speak to health effects, but I think if you keep the glass clean it couldn't hurt.

[PSH]

PC bulbs just don't have the life that T5 or MH do. I have traded all my PC fixtures for T5. Plus with T5 you can pick and choose the color of the bulbs to get the exact look you are going for.