$500 lighting budget

[DreamerTheresa]

Hey there, RC forums!

My boyfriend and I are moving across town at the end of the month, and figure since we're moving the tank, it'd be a good time to do a little bit of an overhaul (even though the tank is relatively still in its beginning stages).


Eventually, we'd like to do some coral in our tank.

We have a 135 gallon Oceanic tank. It is 72" long.
Our lighting budget is about $500.

This is what we're looking at:
http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=CU01026

http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=ES53409


Any pointers? Can someone suggest a better light set up for our budget?
What kind of coral could we hope to manage with this kind of lighting?



Thanks for any help!

``Theresa

[costa13]

I would look into T5's instead of PCs

[eaj43081]

With a pc setup you are pretty limited to the types of corals you can keep, no clams or sps. You might find some good deals on light fixtures in the selling forum or a local reef club. I had a 48" pc setup that I just upgaded to a MH and I'm much happier with it.

[DreamerTheresa]

Thanks for the input. Would going with T5s as opposed to PCs broaden our spectrum of what could be housed in the tank?

[ccorpse27]

It's gonna be tough on that budget for such a long tank. Hit up the classifieds for some used metal halide pendants. T5s are excellent lights, I use four 24watt bulbs on my 20L. You can keep anything under T5HO lighting as long as the bulbs have individual reflectors but read the threads on T5s so you can make the best choice for you.

[hahnmeister]

You can use 5' bulbs and reflectors, and Icecap 660 ballasts... The hitch is that new 660s are about $150 each... but used, you can score them for about half this.

Otherwise, http://www.reefgeek.com/lighting/T5_Fluorescent/Sunlight_Supply/Tek_2_Retrofit_Kits/60_inch__4x80W_Tek_2_T5_High-Output_Retrofit_Kit_w!_Bulbs_by_ReefGeek

A 6 bulb or 8 bulb setup would be ideal, but if your budget is $500, that 4 bulb setup above is the ticket. Heres the kicker... those IC660 ballasts included in that kit for $509 can each handle 3 bulbs, not 2, so wiring up two more bulbs would only involve 2 more reflectors, endcaps, and bulbs down the road.

I think that route would be the best for you. the 4 bulbs would be about 400 watts, and when and if you go with 6, thats 600 watts (the IC660 slightly overdrives the 80watt bulbs to 100watts... not much, but its a boost none the less).

Just dont forget to add on fans. Just a couple fans blowing air across the bulbs on end will boost their output by a good 20% and increase their lifespan.