Lighting for 90g

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Brad CNC 76

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Sep 7, 2003
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So I'm finally getting the tank I've always wanted up and running. :dance: It's a 90 gallon and now I can't decide about the lighting. I'm looking at the Nova Extreme T-5. The 432 watt one. http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=12772&N=2004+113175 Would this be enough for soft corals and mushrooms and such?
I really want the 716 watt Outer Orbit Pro Series HQI/T-5/LED. http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=15486&N=2004+113352 I just don't know if I need that much light. And I don't like the price on that one!! But then again... If I got that one I could keep just about anything, right?? I know it will be a while before I really need the light, but both are on sale right now so I figure I should go ahead and go for it. (My wife uses the sale excuse all the time so I can too, right??)
Here is a picture of my tank so far. It has about 100 lbs of live rock and I'm a week into cycling. I'm not sure if I like the way the rocks are arranged. Any opinions? I have learned a great deal from reading these forums and I thank everyone for that and for any suggestions you can give me now!!
90%20gallon%20saltwater
 
Both the T5 lighting fixtures would be good for you...Obviously, if you want to go down the route with more light demanding coral, then yes, the more powerfull lighting would be better for you..

Picture of the tank looks good...What are the current test results of the cycle so far?

Niko
 
I got about a 50/50 mix of well cured rock and semi-cured rock, so the cycle is going really fast. Ammonia and nitrite are falling pretty quick.

amo - .25 ppm
nitrite - .25 ppm
nitrate - 10 ppm
ph - 8.2

I'm fighting the ph a little. Dang Instant Ocean salt...... It mixes up good but ph drops fast if I don't add buffer. My water may have a little to do with it too. My tap water is about 6.5 to start with. Oh, and I have a RO/DI unit, I don't use it right from the tap!
 
We have the Nova extreme t-5's on our 90g. We have the higher watt one, I'm pretty sure the 432 is the higher of the 2.
We've only had ours running for a few months but we have frogspawn, plate corals, mushrooms, xenias, zoos, yellow polyps, green star polyps, and more and everything is doing wonderful.
When we were researching our lights, we heard that the individual reflectors is better with t-5's and the nova doesn't have them.
The only complaint I really have is that the mounting brackets are kind of flimsy and we've already had to superglue one back together.
Not bad for the price though.
 
atnixon said:
it was one of the issues/reasons why i moved away from IO onto Reef Crystals...Since moving, i have not had to buffer once...

Niko
Click to expand...
yea reef crystals is great! i still need to buff calcium because of all my clams but if it wasnt for them it would work wonderful! always go with the better ficture...in this hobby the extra bucks are always worth it.
 
Well, it's a lot more expensive (like 2x) but I'm going to get the 716 watt Outer Orbit Pro Series HQI/T-5/LED fixture. I'm sure the T5 fixture would do fine for what I plan to keep, but I might decide later that I want to keep other things and I don't want to be limited by the lights. It will probably be next weekend before I can order them. And a bucket of Reef Crystals!!!!!
 
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