lights

If I do 75 x 4 VHO's over a 29 gallon I can have over 10wpg. I feel like this would also limit the things I could keep though, it might hurt the zoos and mushrooms and things like that that can live in the low- moderate range. plus i can't imagine how much algae I'd have. So I was thinking of getting one of those coralife 4 x 75 ballast kits but only putting 3 vho's in it to start and maybe one NO to fill the extra spot. That would put me at 8.4wpg. does that sound like a good plan or is that too much to have over the tank during the initial stages?

more background info: I think I am going to try starting with 100% dead base rock and sand and seed it with grunge, then after the coralline is established add some frags that I can hopefully get a deal on. It'll be the slow route but it will save some money I think.
 
I don't know if it matters for your pick...but the Aqualight I bought is kind of loud. I have the single quad bulb 96watt. I think most of the noise comes from the extra space at the other end of bulb. The fans are on top towards the back with the ballast and the air is sucked in the empty side (loudly) and pumps out the side with the socket and ballast. Maybe the ones with sockets on both ends wont' have the open space to amplify the sound...but maybe they're noisy too. Just thought I'd add that in case the apt is small enough to make this a nuisance.
 
mattgreene22 said:
I don't know if it matters for your pick...but the Aqualight I bought is kind of loud. I have the single quad bulb 96watt. I think most of the noise comes from the extra space at the other end of bulb. The fans are on top towards the back with the ballast and the air is sucked in the empty side (loudly) and pumps out the side with the socket and ballast. Maybe the ones with sockets on both ends wont' have the open space to amplify the sound...but maybe they're noisy too. Just thought I'd add that in case the apt is small enough to make this a nuisance.
Click to expand...

yeah, i thought about getting a couple of the quad bulbs but i can't think of a way to fit them over a 29 gallon plus it wouldn't give me quite as much wattage as i will eventually want...

does anyone know anything about the coralife vho retro kits?
 
I only have 6.4 watts per gallon on my tank. I use a 2 x 74 watt VHO retrofit kit from Hamilton Lighting and a weird little 36 watt power compact light that has been discontinued. My soft corals do great with this much light. I used to be overrun with tree corals before I gave most of them away. My lps frogspawn does really well to, and I have two small sps corals that have grown about half an inch in a few months, and that's with really low calcium. I just found out how low it was and am starting to raise it. I expect them to take off. By the way, I also had a long tentacled anemone that gained 11 inches in diameter in a year under these lights! That was before I put the 36 watt power compact on.
More light than that would probably be fine for hard corals, but like you said, if you really like shrooms and zoos, you might have to be careful.
 
marine fish

Has anyone ordered from LiveAquaria, either fish or inverts. If so, what is the quality?
 
I just set-up a 30G long tank and purchased the 24" Aqualight Pro Light Hood from hellolights.com - it was pricey (but competitive) and I'm real happy with it. It has a 150W MH bulb, 2-65W Blue Actinic PC bulbs and 2 Blue LED Moonlights. The fans are quiet and the hood is attractive. I put the legs (a little extra to buy these) on, but inverted them to fit this tank. That's 9.3 WPG, hopefully it's not over-kill.

I just put in some SPS corals and only time will tell how they're going to do - they suffered stress shipping from Florida to here - airplane delays due to weather (fog). Anyway, because the hood is shorter (in length) than the tank I'm able to put soft corals on the ends of the tank and on or near the substrate; those areas furthest from the MH and slightly hidden from the light by the rock-scape. I'll also be adding a clam on a little sandy beach area I created.

Anyway.....just another idea on how to combine SPS, LPS and softies. Admittedly, it's in the beginning stages but so far everything is great. I'm also running an EcoSystem with Mircale Mud - I've got 2 now (one on a 20G tank), and they are making a world of difference for me.

Good luck and happy reefing!!!
 
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