monsinour
Active Member
I sorely need to do more research on this and would like to be pointed in the direction of where to read up on this. I will tell you what I know and what I would like, you can then tell me where to go (LOL) and read up on this so that I can make a better informed decision.
I will have a 24x24x24 60 gallon cube style tank. It will have a 15 or so gallon sump. the inhabitants will be as detailed in this post - https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/forum/thread/379818/new-aquarist/60#post_3303601.
I would like to have 1 assembly to house all the lights. I would prefer to not have to make it myself as I am not a carpenter. Realistically, I could mount things to a piece of wood, but getting that piece of wood to match up in size with other pieces of wood to go over the tank as a canopy is where my problem comes into play. I am aware that it would be cheaper if i were to make my own, but my fears of making it prohibit my willingness to try it. I would like to have the ability to have the blue lights on 1 hour before the white lights turn on. I did see that there is specific lights for "coral growth" to help them and would like to incorperate them into the lighting as well. So i need some system that has the ability to have 2 different sets of lights on at 2 different times. I see this kind of setup but know that i might have to change the order of the lights:
Blue accent light - come on at 10 am off at midnight
Coral Growth light - come on at 11 am off at 11 pm
White Light - come on at 11 am off at 11 pm
White Light - come on at 11 am off at 11 pm
Coral Growth light - come on at 11 am off at 11 pm
Blue accent light - come on at 10 am off at midnight
I am aware that 6x lights in one housing is going to be hard to find and expensive. This will make the diy part easier and more cost effective. I would like to have T5HO lights, but I do know that metal hylide lights would be better. There is the price involved and would I have to explain to my wife about the spend $ now to save $ later with the metal lights. My wife is focused on the startup costs and not the future costs.
The things that confuse me:
the watts - following the guidelines, i need between 4 to 10 watts per gallon. this makes it 240w to 600w. Forgetting the style, how on earth can you get enough bulbs anywhere near the tank at 25w per to get the 600w you need? I am not figuring this out at all. I am aware that you cant figure in the blue lights into this equasion and I am clueless about the coral lights figuring in.
Heat from the lights - MH lights are hotter than the T5HO, right? I live in a fairly cold climate and during the winter, our house is kept a little cooler than most. We love blankets, and my daughter wants a suggie (NO). Would it be better from a heat standpoint to get the MH lights?
Built in fans - these are good thing right? Keeping the lights cool would be desirable so that they dont melt. But wont this kick up dust and crap and possibly get into the tank? I have a background in car stereo and am aware how heat sinks work and what makes one kind of heat sink better than another. We tried to avoid fans as it introduced alternator whine into the system, but there is no audio in a fishtank. If I were to make something on my own, does radio snack sell fans that would work?
Spectrum - I am aware that there are differnt lables for the different kinds of lights out there. I would imagine that full spectrum lighs would be the best, but whats the point of getting anything else? whats with the kelven scale? I have seen some lights at 10K and 12K and then some at 6k. I know that the TV your watching should be at 6500K inorder to ensure true color for what you are watching, but what bout these things? I would imagine the bigger the # the better the light.
=======================================
So far, just about everyone has been helpful here and has offered me wonderful advice. This happens to be a very important part of a marine setup and I felt it deserved its own thread. Besides, this might help other newbs to understand the lighting aspect better. If you have made your own lighting setup from "scratch" can you please post a pic of it so I can get an idea of what I would have instore for me? Thank you all for reading this far and thank you for your time in answering even the most basic of questions that have been posted here.
I will have a 24x24x24 60 gallon cube style tank. It will have a 15 or so gallon sump. the inhabitants will be as detailed in this post - https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/forum/thread/379818/new-aquarist/60#post_3303601.
I would like to have 1 assembly to house all the lights. I would prefer to not have to make it myself as I am not a carpenter. Realistically, I could mount things to a piece of wood, but getting that piece of wood to match up in size with other pieces of wood to go over the tank as a canopy is where my problem comes into play. I am aware that it would be cheaper if i were to make my own, but my fears of making it prohibit my willingness to try it. I would like to have the ability to have the blue lights on 1 hour before the white lights turn on. I did see that there is specific lights for "coral growth" to help them and would like to incorperate them into the lighting as well. So i need some system that has the ability to have 2 different sets of lights on at 2 different times. I see this kind of setup but know that i might have to change the order of the lights:
Blue accent light - come on at 10 am off at midnight
Coral Growth light - come on at 11 am off at 11 pm
White Light - come on at 11 am off at 11 pm
White Light - come on at 11 am off at 11 pm
Coral Growth light - come on at 11 am off at 11 pm
Blue accent light - come on at 10 am off at midnight
I am aware that 6x lights in one housing is going to be hard to find and expensive. This will make the diy part easier and more cost effective. I would like to have T5HO lights, but I do know that metal hylide lights would be better. There is the price involved and would I have to explain to my wife about the spend $ now to save $ later with the metal lights. My wife is focused on the startup costs and not the future costs.
The things that confuse me:
the watts - following the guidelines, i need between 4 to 10 watts per gallon. this makes it 240w to 600w. Forgetting the style, how on earth can you get enough bulbs anywhere near the tank at 25w per to get the 600w you need? I am not figuring this out at all. I am aware that you cant figure in the blue lights into this equasion and I am clueless about the coral lights figuring in.
Heat from the lights - MH lights are hotter than the T5HO, right? I live in a fairly cold climate and during the winter, our house is kept a little cooler than most. We love blankets, and my daughter wants a suggie (NO). Would it be better from a heat standpoint to get the MH lights?
Built in fans - these are good thing right? Keeping the lights cool would be desirable so that they dont melt. But wont this kick up dust and crap and possibly get into the tank? I have a background in car stereo and am aware how heat sinks work and what makes one kind of heat sink better than another. We tried to avoid fans as it introduced alternator whine into the system, but there is no audio in a fishtank. If I were to make something on my own, does radio snack sell fans that would work?
Spectrum - I am aware that there are differnt lables for the different kinds of lights out there. I would imagine that full spectrum lighs would be the best, but whats the point of getting anything else? whats with the kelven scale? I have seen some lights at 10K and 12K and then some at 6k. I know that the TV your watching should be at 6500K inorder to ensure true color for what you are watching, but what bout these things? I would imagine the bigger the # the better the light.
=======================================
So far, just about everyone has been helpful here and has offered me wonderful advice. This happens to be a very important part of a marine setup and I felt it deserved its own thread. Besides, this might help other newbs to understand the lighting aspect better. If you have made your own lighting setup from "scratch" can you please post a pic of it so I can get an idea of what I would have instore for me? Thank you all for reading this far and thank you for your time in answering even the most basic of questions that have been posted here.
