Beginner Getting Ready To Buy Lights

[Brood52]

I have a 75 Gal tank that is almost complete with cycling, and I am getting ready to buy my lighting. My ultimate goal is to have 3-5 fish in my quasi reef tank. I am going to start with softs then slowly move my way up to SPS corals.

Any recommendations on a lighting setup? Halide or T5? If T5 how many?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!! :D

[davefan13]

go as big as you can get. if you can, get metal halides, but t5s are also good.

also, welcome to reefcentral

[harrisagogetter]

If you are going to get a lighting system buy as much as you can, because after awhile you will wish that you had bought that light with the extra 150-250 watts. Usally you can start off with about 5-7 watts per gallong and just about grow anything that you want. There are some that may disagree but that was a general rule of thumb for me. JBTW I have about 500 watts over a 55 which is probebly too much but evvrything that I have put in there has grone like mad.

HTH
Aaron

[petedoc]

Check out www.aquatraders.com I have several of their PC units and the price is unbeatable. You may well change your plans for your reef system within the next one or two years so don't overinvest in something that may need to change. I won't say the same about skimmers. Your can never have too good of a skimmer.

[nick18tjetta]

I would not recomend aquatraders. The lights may work fine, or they may burn down your house. If I were starting out, and knew what I know now I would buy a dual 175w MH electric ballast and run Iwasaki aqua2 bulbs (15k). I would supplement with VHO's also running on an electric ballast. Get good reflectors, if you can't afford luminerics (SP) then get the spyder reflectors. You could go with another setup and probably be succesful, but MH/VHO combo is still the best looking light setup for a reef aquarium.

[petedoc]

There is a long thread on this forum analyzing the aquatrader lights if you are interested. If you have alot of sps corals then MH will be useful, if not then PC or T5 lighting will be fine. The difference is 100$ vs 500$.

[nick18tjetta]

I have little over $300 in my MH setup, $130 for the bulbs, $150 for the ballsts and another $50 for reflectors and sockets. I wouldn't trade it for any T5 system.

[bladze]

Get two of each below:

Sunlight Supply Lumen Max 3 250W Double Ended HQI Reflector
marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=SL1533

250W icecap ballast
marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=IC3161

For bulb, I like phoenix bulb.

If money is not an issue, get this one:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1119604