LED's, MH , T5....etc

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PR1 Paladin

Member
Joined
Jan 29, 2011
Messages
9
Location
Sedro Woolley, WA.
I need to get a newer lighting system and want to know opinions on the various systems out there.

I have a truvu 100 60"(w) x 20"(h) x 18"(d) and would eventually like to put a anemone in the tank.

Need some help deciding what would be good. I have looked at LED's as the take up less space and produce less heat and I don't have a lot of room but will the provide the right lighting?

Any help would be great ( hope I posted in the right area )?
 
I have had very good experiences with LED's. I have a MH set up on my big display (3x3x30inches) and LED on the small (2x2x2). I am waiting to order LED's for the large one. ONLY complaint thus far on LED's is the price.
 
Some of the things I have looked at say the LED's are more cost effective then the other types. Thats why I ask. LED's last longer from what I have seen but cost in the long run and will they be able to provide the light that and anemone will need :)
 
I don't keep anemones so I don't have a lot of information on them but I don't believe they have critical lighting requirements, as a rule. Someone can correct me on this if I'm wrong but I suspect you're going to find that if you're able to successfully keep a nem you're going to find that it attaches itself somewhere out of direct current flow and in the shaded or less well lit area of the tank.

What else are you planning on keeping in your tank? If you want to keep any SPS then you're going to run into some specific lighting requirements. For just about anything else you really have a lot of options.

Mike
 
Anemones, actually, are among the highest light demanding animals, that we keep in our reef tanks. Many anemones have the same high light needs, as Acropora coral and clams.

When trying to decide what your lighting needs are, it's important to first decide what types of animals you'll want in your tank, how deep your tank is, how you want to suspend or attach the lights, how high lights will be, off of the water, etc. Other things you'll need to take into consideration, is heating/cooling issues, created by some types of lighting.

Some things to think about. If you want "shimmer," you'll need a "point source" light, such as MH or LED. With fluorescent lighting, it's much harder to achieve a shimmer effect. However, you can still get shimmer, by simply adding a couple of clip on LEDs.

Depending on the depth of your tank, 250MH or T5HO will usually allow you to grow anything you want. I'm not too familiar with LEDs, so can't really comment on it much. However, it does seem that most people are having better results, with DIY systems, than manufactured systems. DIY can save you A LOT of money, as well.

MH lighting will create a lot of heat. Depending on the temperatures, in your area, and in your home, a chiller may be needed, in the summer months.

With all of these lighting sources, quality reflectors are very important.

Since there are many quality reflectors available, for MH systems, I'll only comment on T5HO reflectors, as they really do matter.

With T5HO, there are basically 2 types of reflectors. Parabolic and ICR.

Parabolic reflectors are flat, or slightly curved, and you have a single reflector, above all your bulbs.

ICR (Individually contoured reflectors) come in a few different types, but they all result in a high quality reflector.
Single reflector, bent around each individual bulb.
Individual reflectors, that are contoured to bend around each bulb, and then welded together, to create one reflector.
Individual reflectors, that are contoured to bend around each bulb, above each bulb.

With T5HO, ICR is critical, as the reflector style is a huge part of the success of T5HO lighting.

With all lighting, having a quality ballast is also very important. A lot of 'off brand' fixtures that are found cheap, on Ebay and such, are made with inferior ballasts, that actually under power the bulbs.
 
Sid, I think I have gone through this website and I seem to remember that you just switched your lighting. What did you change to? I just had a 250w MH blow a bulb, switched it out, blew another and now the ballast is broken, fortunately I have an old t5 supplementing in the meanwhile. I need a new lighting system but i am also going to change tanks to a tall 45G. Any clues?
 
Sid, I think I have gone through this website and I seem to remember that you just switched your lighting. What did you change to? I just had a 250w MH blow a bulb, switched it out, blew another and now the ballast is broken, fortunately I have an old t5 supplementing in the meanwhile. I need a new lighting system but i am also going to change tanks to a tall 45G. Any clues?

I haven't made any changes, in lighting, for years. I ran a 6 bulb Tek5 T5HO fixture, over my 75. I'm running that same fixture, with the addition of a 4 bulb Tek5, for 10X54 Tek5, over my 200 deep dimension. We're running a 150MH Sunpod fixture, over Angie's Nano. We WILL be making a change, to our 40 breeder/frag tank. We've been running a 6 bulb Tek5 over it, and will be switching to a single 250MH Hamilton Pendant. Realistically, the only reason we're making the switch is because I won the pendant, at one of our club raffles, and would like to try it out. I've not had any problems with the 6 bulb Tek5, over the 40 breeder. We're batting around the idea of switching to an LED fixture, over Angie's Nano, but that's in the future.

In all of our tanks, we can grow whatever we want, including SPS, on the bottom.
 
Thanks for the quick reply and info. I was thinking of a 250 HQI at 20k and wonder if I would need to supplement with actinics(45G Tall).
Your tanks are awesome.
 

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