Lighting!

[Reefer769]

hey!


ive just been thinking about lighting for my tank, and hopefully ill be able to afford some nice lights soon, and i just need some suggestions on these lights.

18" Acualight

9", 18" or 20" Coralife

[Rp Marine]

i u can get those. but that would be spending alot of money. i would diy lighting. with a 30 gall tank and tall u would need alot of ligthing if you want to support coral. i would get a 2x55 watt pc lighting diy kit for 58 buck i think at ahsupply.com it comes with everything. they have a great deal.

[Ninong]

Unfortunaly you can't fit 55w PC lamps over your Oceanic 30-gal cube tank.

[Rp Marine]

i guess u right because i don't know what the width of the tank. but truly 2x32 watt or even 4x32 watt kit will do i think so? it just depend on how much lighting you want

[Ninong]

An inexpensive option would be one of the 2x36w PC kits from AH Supply: http://www.ahsupply.com/ They even sell a ready-made enclosure for that kit that is 20"x8" and should fit just about right over an Oceanic 30-gal cube, which has exterior dimensions of 20.5"L x 18.5"W x 21.5"H according to Oceanic.

My personal choice for a 30-gal tank would be a single 150w 10,000K HQI DE lamp, posssibly with actinic supplementation of some sort. There are fixtures like that around but I can't remember the brand name right now. You might also be able to find fixtures that would fit your 20" space that have one mogul base metal halide lamp with two actinic fluorescents, either normal output or PC.

[Reefer769]

alright, i really dont know the first thing about lighting for a tank, so if you could give me some links to some stores that would sell the light fixtures you reccomended, that would be awsome. thanks!

[Reefer769]

is this the one?

2 X 36 watt bright kit, for $62.99

[Ninong]

is this the one?

2 X 36 watt bright kit, for $62.99

Yes, and they also offer a ready-made enclosure for only $29.99: http://www.ahsupply.com/finished_enclosures.htm

That would be the cheapest way to go if you choose to go with PC fluorescent lighting.

The metal halide pendants all run more money. Counting the cost of the pendant housing, the ballast and the lamp itself, you are looking at $250 - $450.

[Rp Marine]

with that deminsion do you have the stock lighting hood? becuase it is easily able to fit the 2x36 watt on it like i need on my 20 gal hood on the other post i send.

[Rp Marine]

to fix the lighting is very ez. i too didn't know anything about lighting, but it was ez to put the kit together.

[Reefer769]

is there maybe a better site to order from, becuase this seems to complicated, i mean all i would need is a kit and the bulbs, becuase i have a stock hood fixture. so i could just put the kit together in that.

[Reefland]

I don't know anything about the AH Supply lights however I would not think anything that would fit within your "stock hood" would be sufficient to maintain coral. Perhaps I am wrong though, like I said I am not familiar with the AH Supply kits.