recommendations needed please

[drea]

ok, so i have a 75 tall oceanic, in which i have a ton of red shrooms that i have been fraggin... i also have a zoo, (orange and blue which doesn't really do well cause of lighting) :cheer:
the lighting has been stock... i'm now ready to upgrade just to keep shrooms, soft corals, zoo's poylps whatever..... the problem is, i want to be able to keep the glass to and just add the lighting unit (placing it directly on top of the glass... Is this doable? any dangers to this????? :notsure:
thanx for the help, and please recommend a lighting unit that would be best for me (by the way my mushrooms have done amazing under the stock light!)
thanx for any help!!!!!!!!!!!!! :help:
:happyfish

 

[reefforbrains]

Just grab a cheapy Compact Flouresent from the classifieds. no prob with running a dual compact right over the top. Should be fine for great Zoa and Mushroom growth.
48" dual PC, or even run 2 end-to-end of 24" dual 65w(saves on shipping quite a bit if buying them from classifides when they are shorter) total wattage would be 65x4=260w you will have a sea of zoa's without a wallet that is screaming in agony.

 

[drew2005]

Originally Posted by drea
ok, so i have a 75 tall oceanic, in which i have a ton of red shrooms that i have been fraggin... i also have a zoo, (orange and blue which doesn't really do well cause of lighting) :cheer:
the lighting has been stock... i'm now ready to upgrade just to keep shrooms, soft corals, zoo's poylps whatever..... the problem is, i want to be able to keep the glass to and just add the lighting unit (placing it directly on top of the glass... Is this doable? any dangers to this????? :notsure:
thanx for the help, and please recommend a lighting unit that would be best for me (by the way my mushrooms have done amazing under the stock light!)
thanx for any help!!!!!!!!!!!!! :help:
:happyfish
Upgrade to a nice PC unit from Current or Coralife. I personally like Current. I think they make great units. You can find decent deals online for either one. If you want to keep the glass tops then i wouldn't get metal halides. You will have bad heat issues. I also wouldn't recommend placing any lighting directly on top of the glass. You can run the risk of breaking the glass from the heat output. I have seen it happen. These units have mounting legs you can use to raise it up a few inches.

 

[drea]

well, for a little over $200 i can get t5's, so can i run that w/o messing up my shrooms? is that too much light? i figure this way i can have a lot more to choose from...... i think the t5's have 2 bulbs and the night time one, hahha. as u can tell i don't know much about lighting...
also, if i buy a t5 unit, are theere units which are horrible that i should avoid?
thanx again! :happyfish

 

[drea]

i bought a nova extreme, and i use the rubber spacers, i put it right over the glass top, so far, so good!

 

[dragonzim]

Good luck with the new lights Andre! Those red shrooms are cranking along. They are about double the size of when you gave them to me!

 

[drea]

sick, i'm glad to hear that, i'm getting in a entire bunch of diff colored ones this week!