Pissed off with my Lighting Choices Plz help me choose.

[asonitez]

Ok. I like Soft Corals, Monti's, Leather's, Anemones. I'm NOT a HUGE fan of SPS, Hard Corals, Or much of anything that Looks like a Elk Horn.

My Current Lighting is 4X 96 Watt 50/50 Pc Actinics from Hamilton Technology. Great Lighting but its not Penetrating enough to keep all my corals on the sand bed alive. The Kenya tree isn't fully open because its lacking light I think.

I have a Standard Drilled AGA 90 Gallon. Yes 24 I inches Deep. I have a 1.5/2 Inch Sand Bed.

Corals,

1 Kenya Tree
Buncha Assorted Zoo's
1 Leather
1 Shroom


Before I even ADD any more corals or before anyone yells at me They were all frags, left overs, broken pieces from other reeferrs tanks.


I need Advice on Lighting Here are my options and reasons.

1: Odyssea 760 Watt + 6 Moonlights 379 Shipped.
2X 250 Watt - 4 X 96 Watt Actinics and Everything on an Electronic Ballast. From my research I see that I will probably want to CHANGE the ballast to get the most out of my stock bulbs OR Change the stock bulbs to Phoenix 14K's for 60 bucks each.

Over All Brand new I will need to Spend probably another 250 dollars to change ballasts or bulbs or both. I think that this is too much light. Way too much. It will DEFINATELY require me to have a chiller and is over kill I think for my tank. I dunno if im wrong but im new. Also The Energy Consumption would be off the chain.

2: Current Sea/Cora Life - 2 X 150 Watt Metal Halide + 2X 96 Watt Pc Actinic and 4 moon lights. (another reefer) I'll trade my MTC Skimmer for it and Purchase a TurboFlotr instead. (I'm not too crazy about my mtc skimmer)

I like this setup because it comes in a housing with fans its name brand the bulbs are cheap and easy to find and I think the penetration would be great. and its electronic ballasts. It comes with the feet and it looks like a solid unit. I can use it with or without my tanks canopy. I do NOT know if it will take care of my tank though. I like the montis that make a shelf and can grow off a cliff like.

3: Retro Fit dual 175 Watt (4 Month old bulbs) on an ice cap ballast and 2 36" VHO's ( Dunno the Watts)..

I like this because its a little more watts than the 150's but I hate it because it does not come with moon lights and that its Retro. I'll have to run wires in my canopy and I won't be able to use the lights without my canopy. I will also have to work out my own cooling system.



I don't know what to choose. Please Help me. I'm beggin here.

 

[camaroracer214]

have you looked into t5ho lighting? they are very bright (like metal halides) but don't heat up the water, and the bulb life is longer. imo, metal halides would be too much for only soft corals. if you were going with hard corals, then i could see the logic, but not so much with softies. i have t5ho over my 90 gallon reef tank and i have 5 clams (3 crocea, 1 maxima, 1 derasa) and a bunch of sps and lps corals. all of them do very well under t5's and my energy bill isn't as hefty.

also, kenya trees don't rely on light as much as most other corals. they do use the light for photosynthetic processes, but they rely more on filtering food out of the water.

 

[cindre2000]

Don't do the T5 HO if you don't like retrofit. All of the cheaper units have crappy reflectors.

The 250w would be good for your depth of tank. You would want to change the bulbs eventually to pheonix; however, there is no need to change the ballasts unless they are broke. The biggest problem with that light is the number of actinics, that is way too many for your application.

The 150w would work; however, your monti placement would be limited to the upper half of the aquarium for the best colors. You could probably acclimate them to lower levels, since they are very good at capturing light; however, the color may or may not suffer.

175w retro would be great if you got the parabolic reflectors and T5 HO actinic. However, you don't want retro, so its a no go.


---

Metal halide will not be 'too much' for softies. In fact a lot of softies can handle just as much light as your light demanding acros. They just are able to survive on less, so people give them less.

 

[trido]

2: Current Sea/Cora Life - 2 X 150 Watt Metal Halide + 2X 96 Watt Pc Actinic and 4 moon lights. (another reefer) I'll trade my MTC Skimmer for it and Purchase a TurboFlotr instead. (I'm not too crazy about my mtc skimmer)

I like this setup because it comes in a housing with fans its name brand the bulbs are cheap and easy to find and I think the penetration would be great. and its electronic ballasts. It comes with the feet and it looks like a solid unit. I can use it with or without my tanks canopy. I do NOT know if it will take care of my tank though. I like the montis that make a shelf and can grow off a cliff like.

IMO this setup would work best for softies in a 90. It keeps them alive and happy, helps keep your tank heat and electric bill down, and is plug and play. You dont have to buy "its" brand name of bulbs in the future. You can pretty much buy any 150W DE bulb you chose for that fixture when the time comes.
Cindre2000 is right though. You will have to keep your monties in th etop half

If you get the 250W fixture, you can keep almost any coral you ever desire provided you know how to care for it.

 

[shavo]

http://stores.ebay.com/hombby

my buddy bought these off an ebay store and he is happy with it

 

[mr_X]

http://stores.ebay.com/hombby

my buddy bought these off an ebay store and he is happy with it

the light itself is constructed well, but the supplied electronic ballasts are junk.


btw, don't think you are going to save a ton of money with electronic ballasts. you'll save some over magnetic, but not enough to notice a tremendous difference.

i'm leaning towards re-thinking the retro idea, and getting T5's with individual reflectors. you can keep anything you want, and the electric bill and heat will be less :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

I use the Odyssea. The price is right, but as stated you will want to get better ballasts. The quality of the light is good. I have had the PFO Solaris and the quality is the same, I now have a PFO Metal Halide system and the build quality on that one wasnt so good, one of the mogal sockets was not rivited on the reflector....