lighting for a 20g high tank (1 Viewer)

[Guest]

ok i have set up a 20g high nano reef tank. but now i am trying to get teh best lighting setup that i can. i was going to go with 3 regular output fluorescent bulbs (18in, 25watts each) but now i am considering trying to incorporate add 1 or 2 compact fluorescent bulbs. but as many of you know i am limited by space. does anyone have any hints, ideas or tips that could solve my problem?

 

[Wildfire]

FWIW:

Power Compacts are "okay" but if you are really serious about the lighting, look to VHO. You can get a single IceCap 430 and 3 2' (I'm assuming your tank is the stock 24" length) bulbs in Actinic and White (or 50/50) and be really happy... Under VHO, you can keep almost anything.

The NO flourescents won't give you the "punch" if you want to keep anything more than fish. many people have seen good results using VHO and keeping anemones and SPS under it....

 

[Guest]

Or if you want to get even more serious about lighting, 70watt HQI halides are now being made.


You can check out www.nano-reef.com for more ideas on lighting.

 

[texasreefer]

You can get a 24" HO from Hamilton Lighting which will run on a regular 40W ballast. They only have 50/50's but they seem to work good. I run mine on a 20H w/ a few mushrooms and my leaf fish.

 

[ebayes11]

i have two 55 watt pc bulbs on my 20g high nanoreef. i agree that they aren't as bright as vho, but they are very cool (temperature-wise), and much brighter than NO - i'll be able to keep quite a few things in it, even without vho. with CSL going out of business, its easy to get a cheap 2 bulb pc retrofit ballast. just my $.02

 

[Guest]

thanks everyone for the help. i am open to more suggestions. and if possible price ranges. i am trying to figure out how i am going to afford all that i need. oh and i would like to incorporate the stuff i already have. any ideas on that?

 

[rhane71]

1000W MH... The only problem is you need to have a constant flow of top off water. On the bright side you can grow anything, including those Hydoponic plants you have always dreamed of.

 

[Guest]

I am considering ordering these used fixtures.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=46314&item=2395941032&rd=1

You can get 4 21 1/2 inch T5 retros with (used?) 10k karo bulbs delivered for 75 bucks! If going this route, I would highly recommend purchasing some T5 reflectors as well.

 

[Aggie05]

If you are interested, I am fixing to strip my CSL hood of its PC fixture and will have 2 65 watt ballast along with the endcaps and bulbs (one 10000K and one 03 actinic) for sale shortly. They should work over the 20 high if you wanted to build your own hood.

 

[aqua-nut]

I checked out that ebay auction and dang! that's a good deal. Snap up some if you can.

 

[Guest]

Hold on for that ebay thing! I does not say anything about HO! It is not such a great deal if they are not High Output. I emailed the seller and I'll reply here when I find out for sure.

 

[Guest]

I asked the seller this: "Are these T5 HO? ( 39 W for 34-1/2" units )".

This was the answer: "about 35 watts".

HUH??? A NO 36" T5 is 21 watts, so I have to assume these are HO.

The bulbs are brand new.
They sell reflectors for 10 bucks each, can't beat that.

There are 2 lights per package so I am going to order 6 packages. This will give me 12 36" T5 for my 6' long 135 gallon tank. This will give 468 W, I would be happy with that... I am going to stay away from the really demanding corals anyways.

Does this sound like a good plan?

 

[AggieBrandon]

Sounds like it is going to be expensive when it comes time to replace bulbs...how much are T5 bulbs anyway....My guess is to replace 12 bulbs at roughly 20 bucks each they you spend 240 bucks for just bulb replacement a year....might as well spend the extra now for metal halide or some 110 watt vho's and save on the bulb replacement in the future.

Brandon

 

[Guest]

Kenny was putting some of those on his tanks at Aquatic Center. You might want to ask him about them.

 

[Guest]

One of the benefits of T5 lights is that they have a high lumen-maintenance rating. Meaning that the lamp only looses 5% of its initial lumen rating at it's half-life.. So you can pretty much use it for it's 20000 hours instead of replacing bulbs every 6 months. In some cases, this would be cheaper than replacing MH bulbs.. Not in my case as I am thinking about using twelve 3' bulbs instead of eight 4' ones and there is no price break for shorter bulbs. Sometimes shorter bulbs cost more!

 

[Guest]

lighting for a 20g tank

i found a way of doing my lighting. i am setting up a vho system for around 30 dollars( not including price of bulbs). i figured out that i can run 3 vho bulbs off a regular wall plug without the use of a ballast. the only problem is that there is no switch to turn it on and off but that will be solved by using a heavy duty timer.

if you are wondering how i am going to run it off the wall without the circuit breaker blowing. think of it this way. 3 24" vho bulbs run about 45 watts. that means that that is a total of 135 watts. reading light bulbs run at 150 watts and they run right off the wall. so as you can see for a small tank you can run vho lighting without paying the high prices for a ballast.

 

[ShaneV]

How do you have them wired? In series? 3 different plugs? What types of end caps? I didnt think this was possible, in my understanding is a ballast limits the amount of current going to the bulb, wouldnt running without one just overpower the bulbs and cause them to blow out.

 

[ShaneV]

Also 24" VHO are 75 watts.

 

[Guest]

i have them wired off the same plug. think of it this way if you plug in a regular 5 watt bulb it does not explode. the same applies to flourescent bulbs. how do you think flourescent lights are run in office buildings?

I am going to run them on regular fixtures. i have a friend that is going to help me wire them up. he is more experienced that me and he knows what to do and what not to do. also i am going to run my old 18" bulbs along with the 2 24"vho bulbs. That will make 2 24" VHO bulbs (1 actinic and 1 10k) and 3 18" NO bulbs( 1 corallife 50/50, 1 marine-glo and 1 power glo). thus i will have a total of 195 watts on my 20g high tank.

the 2 vho bulbs will be on one plug and the 3 NO bulbs will be on another. and i will have a moonlight on the tank too. all of these will be on timers and should( cross my fingers) be self-sufficeint.

 

[AggieBrandon]

Florescent lighting in office buildings still use ballasts....world lighting of houston sells lighting for buildings etc and that is how they do it....maybe some other places dont....I think it is a bad idea what you are doing but if it works then more power to you...

Brandon