Hefner's 180 Thread

hefner413

hefner413

Active Member
Originally Posted by ccampbell57
http:///forum/post/2688861
I would rethink the Clown trigger if I were you guys. I had mine for a little less than a year and he grew from 3" to over 5.5" and was thicker than most of my 8" fish.
This guy was very interesting but did not put up with any crap from anyone. He was subsiquently taken out of the tank when he started to stand down with my 10+" emperor and was chasing my 3" bandit angel.
I am not saying that the CT couldnt have lived with the other tank mates, but I was quickly seeing that his attitude was changing and when he got to around 8" (in around a year or so) it would be a whole new ball game.
Yeah, thanks to you campbell, I stopped from getting the CT when I was inches away from getting a 6 inch one at my LFS... I'm almost certain I would have had problems down the line.
But yours chased your bandit around!
Where is the CT now?
 
hefner413

hefner413

Active Member
Well peeps, my next question of the day has been - what lighting to replace my CF's with.
Ccampbell, thanks again for your help with the messages, but now to try to do a quick discussion.
Questions:
1. I have a 6 foot tank. If I get a fixture: is a 4 ft fixture enough light, or should I get the 6 ft fixture?
2. If I go with the 4 ft: Should I go with 4x, 6x, or 8x of the 4ft bulbs?
FIXTURES I'm considering:
1. Nova Extreme 4ft T5 fixture with 8 bulbs. Cheaper but only one reflector.
2. Nova pro fixture (4 or 6 ft) - Both are quick expensive. The 6 ft has 12 3ft bulbs - $$$ to replace bulbs too.
3. Marineland 4ft fixture. Only 4 bulbs and 1 reflector, but super cheap.
4. Nova extreme retrofit kit. As many as I want/can fit. I would have to assemble, but one have individual reflectors and I could make the hood I have been thinking of making.
Sorry for all the info... But any thoughts?
 
iyachtuxivm

iyachtuxivm

Member
You dont have corals so how the light is reflected doesnt matter. Are you going to put anything that needs light in the tank? Anenome or anything?
Other than that I would do the retros if you where planing a hood anyway. With the retro option you could place the bulbs how you wanted using less bulbs to get same effect, kinda.
 
hefner413

hefner413

Active Member
yeah, no corals - I did have one conde in there, but it's now in the reef. But otherwise, I just want the best look of the fish. And thus being a 180, I would like it well lit.
And with the retros I can spread out the bulbs so that they cover the whole 180... so if you did the retros, how many would you do?
 
R

rcreations

Guest
With a FOWLR, lighting isn't important. So you should go with something that looks good to you, whether you want the whole tank well lit, or you want to have lighter and darker areas. I personally have MH because I really like the blue tint and the way it makes all my fish look really bright and colorful.
Here's an older picture of mine. What I was going for was a deeper water look with a bright center and a little darker sides.
 
A

arlene1995

Guest
I agree with RCreations. FOWLRs don't need much light at all (I have a 55 with only 26w of light). I would definitely go with what you like and want.
Regarding the fixture, I would personally go with the retrofit kits. I use Nova Extreme SlimPaqs on my 125 and am really happy.
 
ccampbell57

ccampbell57

Active Member
Originally Posted by Hefner413
http:///forum/post/2688889
Yeah, thanks to you campbell, I stopped from getting the CT when I was inches away from getting a 6 inch one at my LFS... I'm almost certain I would have had problems down the line.
But yours chased your bandit around!
Where is the CT now?
The CT went to the first LFS that would take it. They got a steal of a deal. Totally healthy and beautiful clown trigger for $50! I didnt care, it saved me thousands in the backend.
 
hefner413

hefner413

Active Member
Originally Posted by RCreations
http:///forum/post/2689114
Here's an older picture of mine. What I was going for was a deeper water look with a bright center and a little darker sides.
Nice pic --. And looking at your tank makes me think that a darker area would help encourage my eels to come out more...
How do you have the MH set up?
 
R

rcreations

Guest
I have a 250w MH pendant hanging right in the center of the tank. It's the CurrentUSA Sunpod and even comes with 12 LEDs (6 white and 6 blue) which can be controlled independently. I think my fish like the shade areas too because they can go there when they're stressed and just hang out. And all my cleaner shrimp hang out on the left and right side of the tank and the fish know where to go when they need cleaned.
 
aquaknight

aquaknight

Active Member
I have MH's (plus VHO actnic supplement) on my 125 as well. Nothing beats the 'shimmering' water effect MH's give off. However my tank is pretty far from a fowlr. If I was doing a fowlr, like my parents tank, I would just use these, Coralife Aqualight double T5 fixtures. They actually light their fish up very well and are super cheap. Just buy a new fixture instead of replacing the bulbs. Being T5's they're superior to PCs, the fixture is TINY, and there's little to no heat.
 
hefner413

hefner413

Active Member
I'm just wondering if I'm going to be dissatisfied once I step down the lighting... right now I have 384W of CF. If thinking that going to just a couple T5's would seem quite dim. Think so? Currently I have 4x 54W T5's on my 55gal reef and everything looks nice. I think that only 2 or 4 T5's on the 180 wouldn't be enough?
 
aquaknight

aquaknight

Active Member
I'm by no means a lighting guro, but IIRC, you're not really suppose to linearly compare the watts of PC's to T5. T5's give off far more PAR per watt then PC or even MH I believe. My parents tank was in the dinng room, so they didn't want anything too powerful that would be annoying to eat with. I would say the overall brightness probably would be a bit less, but they will 'highlight' the fish better. You'll see all the little lines and designs on the fish, 'pop' better.
 
hefner413

hefner413

Active Member
Yeah, I knew that T5's and CF's couldn't be compared in watts - T5 having more PAR, like you said. I just figured 386w CF would be a bit more than 108 T5. BUT I hadn't thought about having less light actually highlighting the fish better. I do see your point. Thanks for the insight.
 
iyachtuxivm

iyachtuxivm

Member
I would go with 6 36 inch retros from nova extream. They come with 2 bulbs 1 10k 1 460 actinic about $135/kit. 3 kits 6 bulbs and I would change two actinics out for 10ks so 4 10k 2 actinics. I painted a pic for you hope you like it
I would set it up like so
 
hefner413

hefner413

Active Member
Well, using a certain site with my discover card, I am able to get 10% off. So I have been looking at their lights, including the nova extreme retros.
I could get 3 of the 2x 3foot sets, just like you said, but actually for $101 per set - so for a total of 303.
I could go with 3 of the 2x 4ft sets, for $111 ea, for a total of $333.
if I did the 3 3foot sets, I would obviously set them up just like your awesome diagram
If I did the 4ft sets, I would just overlap them. They are about 2.5 inches per light, so it would be 15 inches deep of lights from front to back, thus would easily fit over the 2 ft deep tank.
I initially said, "well if I'm going to spend $333 on a retrofit kit, then I might as well just get a $300+ fixture, and then I wouldn't have to install it. BUT then I realized that all the fixtures with individual reflectors are at least $500+. So thus if I get a fixture, it will be a more simple light with the single large reflector.
 
iyachtuxivm

iyachtuxivm

Member
The retros I was looking have individual reflectors. I'm not sure if thats what you said or not. And thats a good deal I think especially with 10% off.
 
hefner413

hefner413

Active Member
Got some water sensor/alarms for my tanks. Similar to a fire alarm, but for water. They are really loud - and I guess that's the point, eh. You can set them down as you see them in the pic (the sensors are on the bottom), or the sensor can be removed and it has a 6 ft cord so you can place the sensor remotely. They sell these at Lowes for around $15 each. I got 3 on the bidding site for $18 total for all three. Not bad.
 
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