Light Upgrade Suggestions for 46Gal Bowfront

superwade2

superwade2

Member
Hi All,
I've had my 36" Coralife Lunar Aqualight™ with 1-96 watt Actinic and 1-96 watt 10,000K Compact Fluorescent Lamps on my 46 Gallon Bow Front Tank for a little over 2.5 years now and I'm considering a lighting upgrade.
I've been pretty happy with the Aqualight, and have had success with some Mushrooms (Hairy, Polyps, Ricordea, etc), Leather and Zoa's but am thinking about bumping up the light to start considering some other types of corals, maybe an anemone, and ???. I'm NOT going to go bigger on the tank size, my bulbs on my Lunar Aqualight are needing to be replaced in the next 30-60 days anyhow, so I thought now might be a good time for an upgrade.
One last item that might or might not matter, I don't have a Canopy yet and have my current lights mounted on Legs above the tank (over the white "egg-crate" lighting grid stuff that I've cut to fit the tank opening). I have no way to "Hang" anything above, although would eventually like to find a Canopy that fits/matches.
Any Suggestions on where I should start? I know there are various options HQI, MH, T5, with a wide range of prices...
Thanks
Wade
 
superwade2

superwade2

Member
20-21" or so High (depending on where I measure)
36" Wide
12" Deep at the sides - 16" at the middle of the "Bow"
BTW, I grew up and lived in Lincoln, NE from about 2 years old to 25 when I moved to California about 10 years ago...
Wade
 
superwade2

superwade2

Member
How bout the T5 Nova Extreme PRO 36"...seems it would be an upgrade over the fixture I have now at about 60% of the cost of a MH fixture...
 
moprint

moprint

Member
I have the 48" inch version of that and I like it alot. I think for the money they can't be beat.
 
netimreefer

netimreefer

Member
+1 if the depth of your tank is under 24" I would go T5, and I am pretty sure the nova extreme pro has a contoured reflector which increases your light output by some 30% and by the way GO BIG RED!!
 
gatorwpb

gatorwpb

Active Member
I use the 36" 2x150w MH Sunpod on my 65g and love it. Have had it for 2+ yrs now. I love MH and with 14k or 20k bulbs you will get some great color.
 
superwade2

superwade2

Member
Originally Posted by GatorWPB
http:///forum/post/2743308
I use the 36" 2x150w MH Sunpod on my 65g and love it. Have had it for 2+ yrs now. I love MH and with 14k or 20k bulbs you will get some great color.
Thanks for the input... the $300+ for T5 vs $500+ for MH seems to be a pretty significant difference...
For those of you with T5 knowhow, is there much difference between the TEK LIGHT T-5, 36" 6 x 39W lamps and the
36" 6x39W Nova Extreme PRO T5HO... Seem the TekLight is a little more $$$ but not sure why... Is there another brand out there that I should consider (or stay away from) if I think the HO T5 is the way I'm going to go...
If I decided to spend Big $$$, does it make sense to consider the MH/T5 combo setups?
Wade
 
wangotango

wangotango

Active Member
If you're going T5 I'd look into the 36" TX5 from Aquactinics. If it's too pricey then either the Nova Pro or TEK would work. I don't know if the 6-bulb TEK would fit nicely over the top of the tank though; they're pretty wide fixtures.
Regardless of what fixture you choose, use either ATI, Geisemann, or UVL bulbs.
-Justin
 
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