Lighting question

woolfe

woolfe

Member
I've just finished setting up a 90 gal. reef tank. I put in the live rock and sand today. My question is about the lighting. I don't plan to have any corals. I have two guys telling me two different things. One is saying that a T5 for around $90 is all I need. The other guy is telling me I need a set up that runs around $280. I don't mind spending the $ if that's what I need I just don't want to be taken to the cleaners on this. Any advice would be great.
Thanks in advance for all your help.
Wendy
 
katz

katz

Member
Go for the T5 if you are not doing corals right now. You can however add coral to your tank later if you want to.
 
adamc1303

adamc1303

Active Member
The $90.00 for t5's sounds way to cheap and I am assuming the $280.00 is for Pc's which sounds too expensive. Give us some more details watts, brand, length????
 
woolfe

woolfe

Member
I'm not sure of the details. I do know that the $280 has 4 bulbs with a blue light. It's 48" long but that's about all I know.
 
adamc1303

adamc1303

Active Member
It's a pc fixture and you can get it online for $200.00 New for the Coralife brand which is excelent or like $100.00 for this Jebo brand which I think is crap. Or you can do the best thing and look at the classified section on here for a used one for $100.00 made by a normal company.
 
gen1dustin

gen1dustin

Member
If you aren't having any corals, anemones, clams, etc you will not need any special lighting for just live rock & fish. Just a standard flourescent strip lihts that come with most tank kits. I bought a power compact fixture for my 55g reef, but I'll have corals in there. I have T-5s on a freshwater planted tank & I like the look of them & they're smaller & don't produce as much heat as PCs. Though agan if only live rock & fish don't waste your money on any special lighting equipment.
BTW - I have a Jebo 260 watt PC fixture over my 55g & have yet to see any problems with it, other than legs not quite long enough but they did the job with messing around with them. I got mine for $79.99. I know they're cheap & I hear a lot of people saying that they are junk, but I never actually hear a true story of one miss performing or anything bad from someone who does own one. I'm not saying they can't have problems just saying a lot of people say junk, but have never even laid a finger on one.
 
mandarin w

mandarin w

Member
If you are planning a fish only tank, then all you will need is just the regular light strip that comes with the tank, you can go almost anywhere a pick up some bulbs for about 30 bucks, sometimes cheaper



These are the lights I used over my fish only tank for 3 years.
In the double strip I just used two 10K bulbs, and in the single
strip I used an actinic bulb. All three bulbs I picked up at the local pet store. I have even used these over a 75gal that I just keept mushrooms, green star polyps and other very easy corals, with fish and so forth.
In fact I was selling these for 50 bucks a while back.
 
mandarin w

mandarin w

Member
Just wanted to give you an ideal of what those lights look like over a tank, So if you like you know what to get



I used both of the lightstrips shown in the last post over this tank.
two 10K bulbs, and one actinic blue.
 
woolfe

woolfe

Member
I don't plan on having any hard corals. I do want anemones and clams. Maybe some urchins in the future.
 
katz

katz

Member
You need to go for T5 or MH lighting if you want clams and anonomes. They both require high lights.
Katz
 
gen1dustin

gen1dustin

Member
Originally Posted by Katz
You need to go for T5 or MH lighting if you want clams and anonomes. They both require high lights.
Katz

Yup true that & some people will say that you need MH, that T5 won't do the job on clams, but I don't know I have no experience there just mentioning. If you aren't wanting to go that pricey then get you a nice PC fixture & there is some corals that look like an anemone in a way like the torch coral & long tentacle plate corals. They just need moderate lighting.
 
woolfe

woolfe

Member
Is it possible to buy a light that's way too powerful? I want to keep future options open as I'm not sure what I'll want to do once I get going.
 
cymbal67

cymbal67

Member
if you want to keep options open, go with real good lighting. otherwise you will have to upgrade to it when you want to put more stuff in. i hear the metal halide and/or the t-5 is the way to go. but what do i know.....i dont even have my tank set up yet. still researching, (well ok, actually waiting on custom refugium to be made for my corner stand, so i can use all the space in there, instead of giving some space up, using standard rectangular tank - i need to fit a chiller in there too). but kinda glad of the delay, it is letting me get more info.
 
cymbal67

cymbal67

Member
thanks, its killin me that i have to wait so long for the refugium to be designed and made. but i am making it a pretty weird shape to fit that stand.
 
gen1dustin

gen1dustin

Member
Originally Posted by woolfe
Is it possible to buy a light that's way too powerful? I want to keep future options open as I'm not sure what I'll want to do once I get going.
In a way yes you could have to much light where it could burn your fish. Though if you stick with one setup that fits your tank it would be fine. If you want the most options hands down go metal halide & I'm sure everyone will agree. Metal Halide is the closet thing to real sunlight, you could keep; anemones, clams, SPS corals, & all other corals with this lighting. Some set ups for big tanks will have like two metal halide lights & a couple of PCs or T-5s. Just start looking around on the web at lights & you'll start learning quick.
 
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