Lighting help

cadillac · 06-29-2008, 07:36 PM

Hey everyone im new to this site and also new to the saltwater hobby and I have a beautiful 54 gallon bow front pre drilled coner tank with the sump made by All-Glass and everything included.The demension of the tank is 38x27x22 and i want to upgrade the lighting so I can have corals in it.It came with a 30" flourescent twin-tube 60 watt aquarium reflector and I want to know what type of lights should I get?

cadillac · 06-29-2008, 07:50 PM

Hey everyone im new to this site and kind of new to the saltwater hobby and I have a beautiful 54 gallon pre drilled bow front corner tank made by All-Glass with the sump and everything included.The tank came with a 30" 60 watt twin-tube flourescent aquarium reflector and I want to have corals in the tank,so I know I would need better lighting but just dont know what type of t5 lighting to get and how much wattage it needs to have.The tank is 22" deep.Heres a few pics...Thanks

**CarmieJo** · 06-29-2008, 10:35 PM

Hello and

to TR. I use a 24" Solaris on my 54 corner with good results.

I think it looks like you have bio-balls in the sump. If so you will want to pull them before you start adding corals. Bio-balls do a good job converting ammonia to nitrite to nitrate but it stops there. Fish do fine with some nitrate but corals aren't happy with levels about 10.

BrianG · 06-29-2008, 10:41 PM

The type of light you need depends on the type of coral that you want to keep. Different types of corals need different amounts of light.

cadillac · 06-30-2008, 09:07 AM

I wanted to get some zoos,zenia,torch coral,bubble coral and maybe a hammer coral

**Amphibious** · 06-30-2008, 10:13 AM

cadillac, welcome to TR. Nice looking tank.

I see you live in FL. One issue you will have to consider is heat generation and elimination. The coral selection you mentioned is broad indicating to me that in the future you will, more likely than not, be looking at more light demanding SPS corals. It's senseless to spend $300 or $400 on a light that will raise the temperature of your tank to the point that you need to purchase a $500 chiller. All that does is drive your energy bill through the roof.

Carmie bit the bullet and bought a Solaris LED light fixture from The Cultured Reef (my on-line biz and sponsor of TR) and I think she is very happy she did that.

Here's the bottom line - You can spend a bit more up front buying a Solaris LED fixture and not raise temps. This avoids the upfront cost of a chiller and the long term expense associated with MH and chiller operation that goes on forever.

I've been using the Solaris LED system since the first series came out in Sept '06. I unplugged my chiller as a test. I haven't used it since. If you go the MH route, I have a used 1/4 hp chiller for sale.

By the way, I totally agree that you need to dump the bio balls (regardless of what the LFS told you) and replace them with LR. What Carmie said is true.

Dick

**CarmieJo** · 06-30-2008, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cadillac

I wanted to get some zoos,zenia,torch coral,bubble coral and maybe a hammer coral

I had all of those except bubble coral under 130 watts of PC's on my tank before I got my Solaris. For half of the year I had to use a chiller. It was a 1/5 HP and drew 394 watts when it was running. I have not used it since I got my Solaris. My chiller got broken <oops> when we moved the tank from one room to the other and I have not replaced it. You live further south than I do so I am guessing that you would probably need one too.

cadillac · 06-30-2008, 04:32 PM

Thanks guys!im going to look into those solaris lights and maybe some other t5 lighting

**CarmieJo** · 06-30-2008, 04:58 PM

A T5 with enough tubes would support those corals. If you go that way make sure that you get individual reflectors.

bbl_nk · 07-01-2008, 03:49 PM

Also will get heat generation with T5's. I run T5's on mine with a 4-buld set and can definitely notice the heat, not as much as the MH, but enough. There is another brand out there in the LED lighting game but I forget the name (Carmie do you recall?)

With the size fixture you need, you might get an LED setup at a decent price. With the chiller, buld replacemetn every 9-15 months, higher electricity costs, they add up quick

cadillac · 07-01-2008, 04:48 PM

O.k thanks for the advise everyone.Ive been told at the lfs that the current nova t5 lights are also good.Are they?

**CarmieJo** · 07-01-2008, 11:25 PM

Aqua Illuminations is the other LED company. I saw a prototype of another LED at MACNA last year and I heard that another company introduced their LED at AcquariOnLive a couple months ago in Europe. Dick might remember who had that prototype, I think we were together when we saw it.

**CarmieJo** · 07-02-2008, 10:05 AM

Here is the link Interzoo: Casco to launch Aqua FX LED lighting | Practical Fishkeeping magazine to the light. It wasn't at AcquariOnLive it was InterZoo.