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View Full Version : 70g cube lighting help (odd sized tank!)


crichard6069
07/03/2010, 05:15 AM
I'm in the process of setting up my new 70g cube tank and I'm having a heck of a time with the lighting and would like some advice from some folks here.

The tank is 30x30 and as you know most light fixtures are 24 or 36 inches..

Goal: Mixed tank.. SPS/LPS

I've got about $500 to put into a light right now so unfortunately the ATI powermodules are out of reach for a little while. With that said, I'm leaning towards the 24" Coralife Aqualight Pro 250w mh light and hanging it. However, I'm concerned that having one MH smack int he middle of a cube tank won't give me ideal light coverage in the front/back of the tank. I'm fine with putting the SPS in the center of the tank and lower light corals on the edges, I just don't want the lighting to look stupid.. Thoughts?

I've also been trying to find something ideal in the T5 world and have been failing. 30" tank basically gets me stuck with 24" T5 bulbs. Granted, there are a couple of lower-end 30" fixtures (which use T5s) but most of these only have 4 bulbs. I've toyed with the idea of putting two of the fixtures (Current Sundial) on the top of the tank to give me an 8 bulb spread, but at that point it would seem that the Aqualight Pro 250w MH is a better idea than two of the Sundial T5s...

Thoughts? Opinions? I'm stuck and this is the last piece to my new setup I need to get together..

Thanks everyone..