Blackhole (well corner actually)

[samsreef]

OK, I have a slight problem...
At the moment I just keep fish however in the near future I will be (hopefully) keeping corals as well. The problem is with the lights!

I have a 190l corner tank with a very non-customisation friendly hud which has enough room to fit two 18" / 24" (uncertain of length they require) marine actinic lights, obivously these I will be getting (marin white & marine blue). (the hood has an "iBar" kind of structure, the actinics would replace the standard t8 lights which are in their at the moment)

However, that will not be adequate for keeping corals and the lighting doesnt cover the whole surface of the water.

I was thinking of getting a 12" Hagen Powerglow Tube for £6.14 (8W) with control unit £12.75 to fit on the back hood flap (12" one should fit quite nicely without getting the way of the pumps or prizm hangon)

For the front hood flap I hope to get a 22" T5 24 Watt Marine White (£15.19) with a single control unite (£44.99)

This comes to a grand total of: £108.60 (I think.. and remember thats not dollars, $211 USD).

Does anybody else have any bright ideas! I'm not too keen on spending that much money on lighting all in one go.

How much are hanging lights and what are good makes?

[Max]

OK, I have a slight problem...
At the moment I just keep fish however in the near future I will be (hopefully) keeping corals as well. The problem is with the lights!

I have a 190l corner tank with a very non-customisation friendly hud which has enough room to fit two 18" / 24" (uncertain of length they require) marine actinic lights, obivously these I will be getting (marin white & marine blue). (the hood has an "iBar" kind of structure, the actinics would replace the standard t8 lights which are in their at the moment)

However, that will not be adequate for keeping corals and the lighting doesnt cover the whole surface of the water.

I was thinking of getting a 12" Hagen Powerglow Tube for £6.14 (8W) with control unit £12.75 to fit on the back hood flap (12" one should fit quite nicely without getting the way of the pumps or prizm hangon)

For the front hood flap I hope to get a 22" T5 24 Watt Marine White (£15.19) with a single control unite (£44.99)

This comes to a grand total of: £108.60 (I think.. and remember thats not dollars, $211 USD).

Does anybody else have any bright ideas! I'm not too keen on spending that much money on lighting all in one go.

How much are hanging lights and what are good makes?

Hi samsreef,

I think we have the same tank, From what you describe it sounds like it anyway. It is a nice looking tank but you are right in that the hood leaves no room for nice lights.

If your handy at all you can make a hood for it that will give you room to go up to 4 24" PC's and a Metal Halide fixture. I gave no thought to a reef tank when I bought this tank as well but soon after found that a fish only tank was pretty boring so I built a hood for it. It isnt hard at all and I run a 250W MH 13k in it. Plenty of room for it and since I made the hood and the fixture my self the cost was not much at all. The hood cost me $20 at most in wood and the MH Ballast and bulb was around $175. I didnt build in the PC's yet but I really dont need them.

Hope this gives you ideas.

Max

[Ninong]

Samsreef,

You will probably need to get rid of the cover that came with the tank and either build something with more room or run open-top with a hanging fixture above the tank.

There are several nice hanging fixtures that would work quite well over your tank. All you need is a single 150w or 250w double-ended metal halide lamp, with or without T5 actinics. Those fixtures are only about 12"-15" long without actinics and about 24" long with actinics.

Since you live in the U.K., you can get the German fixtures much, much cheaper than what we pay over here -- especially since the dollar has tanked thanks to the geniuses in charge over here. Giesemann makes some very nice fixtures but they are expensive. Aqua-Medic makes very nice fixtures and they are less expensive than Giesemann. Aqua-Medic offers an inexpensive pendant with a single 150w or 250w AB-10000 DE lamp (actually 13,000 Kelvin) that is very compact and would work very well over your tank. For a little more money, they offer a fixture that adds two 24w T5 actinics to the single DE metal halide lamp.

You can suspend those fixtures over an open top or you can build a canopy with a hole cut out in the top that is just slightly smaller than the dimensions of your fixture, then you simply rest the fixture on top of the canopy over the open hole.

[samsreef]

Thanks for the info Ninong I will have to have a look at getting a over hang.

Max, I dont think its the same tank but I get your idea. My tank has no where near as big of depth as your hood and the front corner is curved (bow) all way round which makes it even harder! Thanks for the info and pic though

[Poseidon]

Yup if you are going to spend that kind of cash, make it worth your while and get a Halide lamp that you can suspend over top.

[samsreef]

I am thinking about going for the Arcadia Overtank Luminaire (T5, QUAD (4))
Anyone had any experience with Arcadia Overtank Luminaire?

[Ninong]

I am thinking about going for the Arcadia Overtank Luminaire (T5, QUAD (4))
Anyone had any experience with Arcadia Overtank Luminaire?

That's a British company and I don't believe their products are distributed in the States but we do have other U.K. members, so maybe you'll get feedback from one of them.

Do you have a link to a picture of the fixture?

[samsreef]

http://www.arcadia-uk.com/en/180overtank.html

i'm going to be getting the T5's quad with the roof suspender kit, as it wont be able to fit on a corner tank.

[samsreef]

I got 2x T5 quad today, and they are great. (did BlueWhiteBlueWhite on both)
I also got my first coral (soft) and 2 1000l per h pumps and a wave maker. The clown loves the wave maker and it general makes everything look more natural especialy when the coral moves with the water current. Just got to figure out how to try and blend the pumps in! (suppose they want look to bad when they are covered with nice algae)