lighting

[porksoda]

i have a 55 fish only system. I want to try to make it a reef. I need some suggestions on lighting please. As of now I do not have too much money to spend on lights. Thanx

[drummereef]

All depends on what you are intending to keep. Is it going to be a sofie dominated, or sps, or mixed? It's almost always better to go bigger with lighting as down the road you might want to get into more demanding corals.

[popimp06]

i got this t5 lighting kit there about 26 bucks a pop and you can buy one at a time untill you have what you need. they put about 5000 lumens out a piece

[Blown 346]

Like most if us, the first lighting system we buy wont be the last as we always upgrade to something better. If oyu were to say I only want softies, that will change.

I would advise to get a lighting system that will suit the needs of all types of corals and do it once as lighting is never cheap.

[Jon Evans]

if you did a DIY with four VHO tubes and an icecap ballast, you could keep pretty much anything. That would give you 440 watts of good lighting.

[cristhiam]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8756333#post8756333 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Jon Evans
if you did a DIY with four VHO tubes and an icecap ballast, you could keep pretty much anything. That would give you 440 watts of good lighting.

I agree, can't go wrong with IceCap, you can override NO, use VHO, use T5 or PC and you can combine them too. My self I override 40W bulbs from HD been doing this for almost 3 years now. and I use 110W actinics to offset the color.

Here is a pic of the 55 40W and 1 110W actinic
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~pinatas/fulltank003.jpg

And this is a link to my 125G with 4 40W and 2 110 Actinics.
My 125 (http://www.home.earthlink.net/~pinatas/)

[GSMguy]

that 125 is sick for no lighting

[cristhiam]

Here is a pic of the purple tip acro Nov 04 :)
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/589/51914acro.jpg