Quote:
Originally Posted by medicreefer
Now that I've got my lighting issues for my 20g all sorted out (thanks to the help of all you RC members) I'm going to be light shopping for my future 120g build in the next few weeks and have a few questions.
At this point i'm planning on lighting with 2 x 250w 14,000k MH and 4 x 54w T5 HO). For the T5s i'm looking at going with 2 actinics, 1 fiji purple and 1 daylight 6500k. Will this give me good light coverage and enough par to keep a variety of LPS and SPS? I like a slight blue look without being over-bearing in the blue department. Another option is to go with 20,000k MHs and switch up the T5 colours but I read on here that if I do that I'll need to go to 400w as MHs lose intensity at the higher colour temps. Any truth to that? I don't want to go all T5 as I like the shimmer effect.
My tank will have a relatively open looking aquascape with a couple of islands. I plan on having the corals placed mostly at mid-tank height and allowed to grow up from there. Hopefully my light choice will have the "penetration" to allow me to do that, as I don't want to have a rock wall built all the way up to the top just to place my corals on top.
Heat may or may not be an issue but I don't think so. The tank will be in a finished basement with a very steady year-round room temp of 72F. On the other hand it will need a canopy (though it may be an open-top canopy) because I need to prevent glare and hide the ugly look of the clear screen top that will be keeping my jawfish from jumping. I can easily have fans in the canopy.
Any thoughts on this? Any recomended lights, reflectors and ballasts? I'm looking for a good mix of value and quality. Finally, I just saw a giesseman all-in-one unit with the 2 MH and 4 T5 combo. Does anybody know about the quality/value of this unit or am I better off just going DIY?
Thanks
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I like the Giesseman units. You would not want to hide this in a canopy. And they rely on passive cooling. They come with two Aquablues and two Actinic plus T5s and 10K HQIs. I switched one Aquablue for a G'mann True Actinic and the other Aquablue for an ATI Blue Plus which is the same color as the two G'mann Actinic Plus (if not the same bulb with a different brand.) I'm not big fan of the blue but I'll want to keep at least two of the T5s blue because the MH is very white. The low PAR of the True Actinic is less of a concern because again you have the halides.
If you were to switch the HQIs to say 14K then you could stay with the Aquablues or switch in a Fiji Purple or GE 6.5K or an Actinic White. Depends on what you like. 20K halides are too blue for me.