Lighting Requirements 45 gal

[Anonymous]

I have just started reading this discussion and everyone has great opinions!

I have a 45 gal tank that has about 25lbs of live rock, a purple-tip anenome, some small polps (not sure what type they kinda look like palm trees only brown), 2 percula clowns, 2 angels, an eel goby, and 2 cleaner shrimp. what i would like to do is upgrade my lighting to support more types of corals. my tank already has an oak canopy. there isn't too much space between it and the glass top of the tank. i've been looking around at purchasing a powercompact/halide combination retro kit. i'm a little concerned that i may not have enough clearance between the lights and the water. i'm also worried about putting too much light into the tank. i would really like to be able to control the day-time light and the actinic separately so i can sort of mimic the day-night lighting. does anyone have any suggestions as to what sort of lighting i could buy to fit my needs? i'm on a sortof limited budget (<$200) and i wouldn't be scared of a DIY solution. if you have any ideas on whom to contact and/or where is a great place to get what i need, please let me know.

thanks for you time in responding.

 

[Anonymous]

I have a 46 gal. tank with 2 - 175watt MH and 2 - 55watt pc. As for your situation I wouldn't add halides unless you have at least 8 inches of clearence in your hood. If your considering pc retros then I would check out AH Supply. They offer retros fairly cheap. I have ordered from them twice and have been very pleased both times. I have my pc's come on an hour before the halides and they stay on an hour longer. I use 2 timers.

James

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If your going to go out - go all out

 

[Anonymous]

Chart,

May I suggest you consider a low profile metal halide bulb like the Iwasaki Color Arc 6500K. This bulb is no larger in diameter than a T-12 flourescent bulb and it has a color rendition of 96. This bulb also has a long life under demanding conditions and I like it better than any 175W bulb currently available. You can buy a 150W kit on your budget. Check out coralreefecosystems.com for more info.

Good luck,

Reefaddictus

 

[Anonymous]

mh needs cooling or height off the water. pc's are generally not a problem with heat if ballasts are at a distance. vho has more choice in color rendition. if hood clearance is a problem i would check out www.ahsupply.com for pc's. or hang the mh.

 

[Anonymous]

Hello,
As an alternative to ahsupply, a new company out can compete. The site is http://carolinacompacts.webjump.com , they are very worth the time to check it out. And no I am not affiliated, just lookin out for the underdog.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all of the great suggestions!

Yesterday i went to Ocean Galleria and purchased lighting for my tank. we went over pretty much all of the options that would work for my tank. The retro powercompacts wouldn't fit into my canopy so we ruled them out. we tried 2-175w metal halides with 2 VHO actinics. that would work fine except that the price was over $500. this was way more than what i wanted to spend right now. so we went with 2 28" VHO actinics and 2 36" VHO whites, all from URI. right now i have all of these running on 1 Ice-cap 430. i wanted to get a second one to allow for independent day-night control, but the cost was a bit too much for now. maybe in another month or so i'll get another 430 and run the lamps separately. total cost of the setup was a little more than $300.

thanks for all of the help and i will keep you posted as things arise...any ideas on what sort of corals i should get? i understand that the hard corals should have metal halide so i probably won't get any of those...

-chart

 

[Anonymous]

I went through the same thing with my 45. You didn't mention the length, so I will assume it is like mine at 48". I passed on the MH, too much heat. I decided on a 4x55watt PC system. I got the electronic ballasts and recepticals from a local electrical supplier; bulbs from MO. I have them split up to come on and go off with timers to simulate the day/night thing. All of this was a DIY for right around the $200 that you want to spend. Only thing is it may be too much light for large polyp & soft corals, but great for SPS. Might think about 2xVHO w/ like an Icecap 440 and 1 actinic/white + 1 actinic O3 bulb.If you plan just soft corals, mushroom corals & anemones, might think of using 4 standard watt bulbs;would give 3+ watts/gallon and in a not so deep tank you'd be ok. Hope your canopy is over 48" to fit these inside or it will be 36" bulbs. You have found out like I, way too many choices!!