Lighting Help

[mattfrancis]

So I'm setting up my 120 gallon aga finally. I have a WavePoint T5 light fixture. It has 2 10k daylight and 2 antics. They're stock bulbs. The guy at the fish store told me I could keep everything except acroporas. Is this true? I have a corallife fixture from my old tank that just has antics on it. I was thinking just putting that with the wavepoint on top of my tank, but changing the bulbs in the wavepoint to all daylights. I would really like to keep SPS and LPS. My main goal is acros and clams. Help is much appreciated. The tank is 24"x24"x48" btw.
Thanks,
Matt

 

[jackri]

If your main goal is acros and clams I would honestly bite the bullet and get Metal Halides.
You might be fine with some acros up top but halides would let you place them anywhere and you'd be happier in the long term with the results and looks IMO.

 

[mattfrancis]

I can't get MH since the room is small and heat would be too much of an issue. Any other suggestions?
Thanks,
Matt

 

[jackri]

LED lighting.
You should be able to have acros and clams with t-5 depending on placement but you won't get the same results.

 

[mattfrancis]

LED the future, and expensive! I'm saying I already have everything setup, I'm making water as we speak. I was just asking for some advice as to what to keep/do.
-Matt

 

[btldreef]

I would leave the WavePoint fixture alone. The actinics that they come with are 420nm actinics which are better. Put two daylights in your other fixture instead.
If you keep the clams and sps up high you might be ok. Start with some frags of monti cap and digitata and see how they do. Green birdsnest is another one you may want to consider.
As for heat, halides w/ proper ventilation should be fine.
Plenty of people keep sps under T5HOs. I did and you may want to look at nycbob's tank, he runs T5HOs and has beautiful sps colonies.
Do not try sps or clams for a few months. let the water parameters even out and get consistent and the bulbs need to break in a little.

 

[wangotango]

A 120 is a pretty deep tank with a decent amount of surface area, so four bulbs isn't really a lot. Six to eight would be ideal.
I would swap out the bulbs for ATI. Try this:
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Aquablue Special
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Aquablue Special
You could always add a retrofit kit for more bulbs to allow you to keep whatever you wanted.
-Justin

 

[reefraff]

You want 8 T5's in a good fixture, which the wave point aint, to try clams in a 120.
Acros would be OK directly beneath the lamps on the rocks.

 

[nycbob]

4 t5 bulbs over a 120 is the bare minimum to keep some sps imo. with proper placement, u could hv success with clam and sps. since this is a new setup, u really shouldnt try any sps or clams until the tank is at least 4-6 months old.