flouresant lighting for reef?

[FishWeirdo]

I would like to start a reef tank in my 50 gal corner tank and don't want to pay metal halide prices. would i be able to use 20,000k lighting that says it's for reefs?

[Germanman]

have a specific ficture or light type...T-5s are really the best next form halides...power compacts will do for some corals plain florescent are no good.

[dorkfish]

Kelvin is just a colour rating, not a measure of light output... Also there's no need to get bulbs labeled reef safe, it's not like it's in the water or something. And no german man... NO will get the job done if you just want softies and certain LPS and you have enough tubes.

[Germanman]

Kelvin is just a colour rating, not a measure of light output... Also there's no need to get bulbs labeled reef safe, it's not like it's in the water or something. And no german man... NO will get the job done if you just want softies and certain LPS and you have enough tubes.
yes i have seen tanks done with NO but most people tend to want a like marine glow 14 watt bulb....plus show me a coral tank that looks as well as one running T-5 or powercompacts

[Reefscape]

plus show me a coral tank that looks as well as one running T-5 or powercompacts

G'Man - No-one said that a tank will "look" as good, just mearly stated that a tank "can be" run with NO lighting...

Niko

[Germanman]

G'Man - No-one said that a tank will "look" as good, just mearly stated that a tank "can be" run with NO lighting...

Niko
im not trying to start an argument here...its actually something id like to see...but it ties back to other things...like how fish can stand nitrates but should they have to? its about the humanity of the conditions that i care for i personally believe in providing the best if i am to kept creatures taken form the wild...just my opinion as said...not fight or argument meant to be started.

[FishWeirdo]

G'Man - No-one said that a tank will "look" as good, just mearly stated that a tank "can be" run with NO lighting...

Niko
What's no lighting?

[dorkfish]

NO is normal output. German man as niko said I never said it's the best, just that it will get the job done... and honestly before I pissed my corals off with a tank upgrade they look just as good as the same species did in halide/T-5 setups, growth rates were probably different though.

As for a whole tank that looks better, garf has some good representations, so is ray jay's reef if you've seen it. But really T-5 HO with good reflectors vs. standard flourescents is realy not a fair comparison, that's comparble to a civic vs. a carrera (you gotta pull off something crazy to have any hope at all)...

[Germanman]

NO is normal output. German man as niko said I never said it's the best, just that it will get the job done... and honestly before I pissed my corals off with a tank upgrade they look just as good as the same species did in halide/T-5 setups, growth rates were probably different though.

As for a whole tank that looks better, garf has some good representations, so is ray jay's reef if you've seen it. But really T-5 HO with good reflectors vs. standard flourescents is realy not a fair comparison, that's comparble to a civic vs. a carrera (you gotta pull off something crazy to have any hope at all)...
cool well thx for the examples i will keep that in mid form now on...it all i was asking for there sorry if i came on to strong....sometimes how our day is going and personal issues get expressed in posts for that in sencerly apologize:)

[rayjay]

The main thing about using NO lighting is merely to have enough of it.
In my 13 yrs of reefing, NO is all I've used over all my tanks.
I don't like to buy NO aquarium lighting though, I like to use GE Daylight 40's at 6500K, and pair each of those with a Philips Actinic 03.
I can buy the Philips Actinic at a hydroponic store, and I buy the GE lamp for $4 Canadian at Canadian Tire stores.
But as I said, you have to use enough of the lamps.
Over a 65, 75, or 90, you can put 8 NO lamps side by side and with that lighting, you can keep sebae anemones, squamosa clams, LPS corals, and softies.
Over a 55, you can put 6 NO's and keep all the same things as previously mentioned.

[Germanman]

The main thing about using NO lighting is merely to have enough of it.
In my 13 yrs of reefing, NO is all I've used over all my tanks.
I don't like to buy NO aquarium lighting though, I like to use GE Daylight 40's at 6500K, and pair each of those with a Philips Actinic 03.
I can buy the Philips Actinic at a hydroponic store, and I buy the GE lamp for $4 Canadian at Canadian Tire stores.
But as I said, you have to use enough of the lamps.
Over a 65, 75, or 90, you can put 8 NO lamps side by side and with that lighting, you can keep sebae anemones, squamosa clams, LPS corals, and softies.
Over a 55, you can put 6 NO's and keep all the same things as previously mentioned.
himm more i hear more i feel like trying it...u might get some pms in the future ray

[kw0me]

would it be cheaper to run a mh lamp over 6 NO lights? cause 1 or 2 isnt much power but 6?

[rayjay]

OK, lets go back 13 yrs.
When I first started in Jan 94, I had no computer and I don't know just how much was available online at that time anyway, as when I eventually did get on, there still wasn't anything like what we have now.
I went with NO lighting because NO and VHO was all I saw on tanks here in this area, especially in the LFS's.
I also did it because it was something I could do myself and do it economically.
I did not want to buy the expensive lamps sold in the stores so I spent time researching lighting by ordering catalogues from all the lighting manufactures.
I settled on a GE lamp which was a daylight 6500K which had an initial lumen output of 3050 which was the highest lumen output available in a 4 ft NO 6500K lamp. Lumen output was important in order to maximize the amount of light getting through the water. The spectral chart of this lamp was identical to the spectral chart of the aquarium lamps sold for marine tanks.
Unfortunately, I didn't like the appearance so I ended up getting Philips actinic 03's and after experimenting, found that one actinic for each daylight gave me a light that was satisfactory to me.
However, I sacrifice lumen output with the actinics because the higher the kelvin rating of the lamps, the lower the lumen output is.
I also make my own hoods so that putting "wall to wall" lamps in the hood is made easier. I don't use endcaps or lamp holders, but I solder wires to the lamp pins and cover the connections with silicon, (must be done very quickly so as not to damage the lamps) and then I pull the wires up through holes drilled in the hoods I built so that I can connect them to the ballast wires, and, after pulling the wires throug, I bend them directly along the top of the hoods and that holds the lamps up in place.
I also don't buy new ballasts, but rather pick up ballasts from the construction recycling outlets for $5 each.
Now, the unfortunate part is that people see my site and figure OK I can use my NO lamps and keep corals. However, they do not have ENOUGH lamps to sustain most corals, even many of the softies.
Some are under the misconception that high Kelvin makes up for not enough lamps. But, the reverse is actually true. The higher the kelvin, the more lamps you need to have sufficient output.
Kelvin is only a means to describe the colour output of the lamp, not the strenth of the light source. Many like the "whiter" light of the higher kelvin, but of course, there are many differing opinions on that as there are on all topics in this hobby.
I have a 20g "grand kids" tank, that I built the hood to take 6 twenty watt NO lamps so it can sustain softies and LPS corals and clams and anemones.
However, it only has two lamps in it at the moment and two 20w lamps will only sustain very low light species like mushrooms.
I hope this information is of some help to some hobbyists at least.
I do not advocate use of NO, I just use it because it suits my needs and budget, but that doesn't mean it's right for all people.
I am about to rebuild a hood over one of my nineties and I will remove six NO's and install four 55w HO T5's with SLR's driven by an IceCap 660 ballast. Maybe this will provide enough light for me to try a few sps corals.

I have a request to make also, and that is, if you wish to contact me please use e-mail.
I don't like to use PM's as it means going to the site, and, if I don't have time to view all the posts since my last visit, it automatically sets my new post read point at the point I go to the site for the PM. My memory is just not good enough to be able to remember where I actually left off in reading posts.