Opinions on this lighting system? I'd love to hear them!

just1moretank · Dec 10, 2009

Hi all--

So, we upgraded from a 75 to a 180 reef a few months ago. Gradually, we have gotten everything where we wanted it to be -- a good amount of new live rock, a new sump, an extra pump, and a new protein skimmer. The corals are all softies -- mushrooms, kenya tree, various polyps. We're also in the process of switching to RO/DI -- our 55 gallon water changes are now done with RO/DI, and our auto-top off is now being filled with RO/DI. So, we're on our way to hopefully getting this tank where we want it to be!

Now on to the real question -- lighting. Currently, we still have the old four-foot light (Coralife Lunar Aqualight) hanging above the tank, which means our rock and corals can only extend four feet! It's time to upgrade -- I'd like to know anyone's opinion on the light linked below. It has a pretty high wattage due to the combination of metal halides/T5s.

So, these are my questions:

-- Is it too much light? (By this, I mean is it going to be too bright for what we're growing?) We might do something other than softies some day, but I'm not sure.

-- Does anyone have any experience with Marineland White Glove Protection/Warranty?

-- Can anyone recommend a comparable product for around the same amount of money or less? I'd like to take a look at it!

-- And, lastly, what has your experience been with any/this MH/T5 combo systems?

Please keep in mind that this is the 72" one when you're giving your thoughts, so you'll need to scroll down in the "details" to get those specs. Thanks for any comments or thoughts!

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...m?pcatid=20394

Amphiprion · Dec 11, 2009

1. No, that should be plenty for what you are doing. It is a 24" tall tank (standard), right? If you want more light demanding corals later on, you may want a different fixture or you'll be limited to keeping things high in the tank.

2. No. In the past, Marineland has been very generous with their warranties, etc. IME. I can't speak for that now, however, especially after they were sold.

3. Sure. You can do better for the money easily, especially if you piece it together yourself. It won't be the neat, contained, aesthetically-pleasing fixture, but it will be superior in terms of intensity and efficiency for sure. If you have a canopy, the aesthetics won't matter as much. Look at any number of places to piece together your own. Try ReefGeek and spread your search elsewhere to track down the best prices. You don't even need the actinic T5s if you don't want them. They can still be had for relatively cheap, though, unless you go for some of the higher spec setups, like with an IceCap ballast. I'd recommend going either with nothing but MH or using a standard ballast to drive the T5s along with the MH (i.e. not an IceCap ballast). I'd give you more specifics for places to find cheaper, but still high quality equipment if I could. Unfortunately, I haven't been in the lighting market for quite a while now, so I am behind in terms of where the best places are. I'm sure someone will be able to find a better recommendation price-wise than ReefGeek.

4. The experience I've had with them have been on store systems and customer systems (when I worked for LFSs). Mostly all were positive, especially considering that the two sort of combine the best of both worlds. They are practically the most intense artificial lighting combos available right now.

just1moretank · Dec 11, 2009

Amphiprion said:
1. No, that should be plenty for what you are doing. It is a 24" tall tank (standard), right? If you want more light demanding corals later on, you may want a different fixture or you'll be limited to keeping things high in the tank.

Okay, I'm not sure if we'll ever get to trying to keep LPS or SPS, but it's good to know that we can make it work by moving the low-lighters down and adding the new ones on top.

2. No. In the past, Marineland has been very generous with their warranties, etc. IME. I can't speak for that now, however, especially after they were sold.

Personally, I love Marineland. I think their products work consistently and they make sense. The sump and protein skimmer on this tank are Marineland, and I also run several of their canisters. The one time I've dealt with their customer service they were efficient and sent the part we needed very quickly. So it's good to hear that this isn't a singular experience!

3. Sure. You can do better for the money easily, especially if you piece it together yourself. It won't be the neat, contained, aesthetically-pleasing fixture, but it will be superior in terms of intensity and efficiency for sure. If you have a canopy, the aesthetics won't matter as much.

Unfortunately, the canopy makes the whole tank so tall that you can't open the top. The stand is very high. Haha we didn't make it, someone else (with much higher ceilings, apparently!) did. So this isn't really an option. Plus, my husband and I talked about it, and we decided we'd like to see our money LOL. Sometimes, we take the doors off the stand just so we can see everything working like it should. It's nice. I totally understand the folks who want everything out of sight, but I like buying things that look nice and looking at them.

Look at any number of places to piece together your own. Try ReefGeek and spread your search elsewhere to track down the best prices. You don't even need the actinic T5s if you don't want them. They can still be had for relatively cheap, though, unless you go for some of the higher spec setups, like with an IceCap ballast. I'd recommend going either with nothing but MH or using a standard ballast to drive the T5s along with the MH (i.e. not an IceCap ballast). I'd give you more specifics for places to find cheaper, but still high quality equipment if I could. Unfortunately, I haven't been in the lighting market for quite a while now, so I am behind in terms of where the best places are. I'm sure someone will be able to find a better recommendation price-wise than ReefGeek.

It's okay; I really don't want to get into piecing systems together because I do enjoy the whole, "If it breaks, call us..." thing. Too many companies, half the system doesn't work, bunches of warranties, etc... we run lots of tanks and a pond, and so I'm really just looking for low-maintenance.

4. The experience I've had with them have been on store systems and customer systems (when I worked for LFSs). Mostly all were positive, especially considering that the two sort of combine the best of both worlds. They are practically the most intense artificial lighting combos available right now.

I'm really excited about the combination, especially now that we don't have a canopy to trap the heat from the MH bulbs. The entire system is open-top, so I hope to find minimal change in temp.

I really appreciate your comments here. Thank you so much! You've been a lot of help.

fsn77 · Dec 11, 2009

For the money, I would personally opt for something else. If I'm going to spend that kind of money on lighting, it wouldn't be on 150w MHs. $1,200 is a sizeable chunk of money to spend on lighting, and for that kind of money I would want the flexibility to keep more light demanding corals, clams, etc. down the road regardless of what my tastes are now.

It is not so easy to have too much light on the average reef tank. Even so, many soft corals are very adaptive to higher lighting conditions and do just fine after an acclimation period.

You have several reasons for wanting an all-in-one fixture, which this should satisfy those for you. It should do what you currently want to get from it.

Having shopped around for lighting for our recent tank upgrade to a 250g, I came across options that would also work for a 180g. For comparison sake, I'll share a couple and you can look into them more if you like. There's literally a few dozen combinations of pendants / reflectors and ballasts you could put together, these just happen to be two that I've leaned towards.

1) 3 x CoralVue Lumen Bright 3 SE (single end bulb / mogul base) pendants ($140 each) + 3 x IceCap 250w MH ballast ($125 each) + 3 x whatever 250w SE bulb you like (approx. $70 each) = about $1,000
This is a bit more light than you'd necessarily need for just soft corals, but they could adapt to it with simple light acclimation. There would be plenty of flexibility for any potential future progression to more light demanding corals.

2) 2 x CoralVue Lumen Bright 3 Large SE pendants ($155 each) + 2 x IceCap 250w MH ballast ($125 each) + 2 x whatever 250w SE bulb you like (approx. $70 each) = about $700
This would also provide a good amount of light for now and later, but would allow for more lower light areas around the edges of the light spread. If you have the space to hang them high enough (the bulb being 14" - 16" off the top of the water), the Lumen Bright Large pendants can cover up to a 36" x 36" area effectively, which is why you'd only need two of them. Depending on how your rock work is laid out and how your tank is braced, this could be a very good option.

Either of those listed above could easily be converted to run 175w or 400w SE MH bulbs just by replacing the bulbs and ballasts with those of the proper corresponding wattage.

The only things that would really have a warranty are the ballasts. The pendants themselves are nothing more than a lamp socket, 3 wires, and reflective material that they bend and shape. It would require a tiny bit of wiring to be done on your end (connecting the ballasts to the pendants), but they really do make it incredibly simple.

just1moretank · Dec 11, 2009

Thanks for these suggestions. I'll pull these up so that my husband and I can look at them and discuss them. I totally agree that I want to buy a light ONCE -- not now, and then in two years, have to buy another because we'd like to move on to more demanding corals, so that's great advice. Thanks very much!

As for the price vs. what you get, I think a lot of the money is probably wrapped up in the bells and whistles -- timers built in, etc. That's one of the problems I do have with it. I'd rather buy a timer for ten bucks (actually, I probably have enough of them already) than pay them a couple hundred to build them in!


zoomed.com	hikariusa.com		aqaimports.com	Store

Search

Search

Opinions on this lighting system? I'd love to hear them!

just1moretank

AC Members

Amphiprion

Contain the Excitement...

just1moretank

AC Members

fsn77

AC Moderators

just1moretank

AC Members