Lighting for the Poor

[rjhiii]

Currently I am putting together my Christmas wish list as to what I need to do to my 75g fresh water tank in order to convert it to salt water. Will the VHO lighting kit from HelloLights be sufficient to start if I am planning on keeping only basic corals at the beginning of this tank?

http://www.hellolights.com/48vhoretkit.html

Another question about them is will 48 inch lights like these fit in a cap for a 48 inch tank? Gotta get the cap so that the girlfriend will stop complaining about how the top of the tank looks :roll:

One last question: What kind of bulbs would you guys recommend in this lighting setup if I was to get it?

[steve1s]

Two things to consider before you purchase this light set-up.

1.. There is only one balast, which means you will not be able to opperate the days and 03's independantly. Not something that will impeed your success, but will take away from the overall look. It is more a preference than a neccessity.

2.. The lights do not specify wattage. Ususlly 48" VHO are 110 watt, but I would still confirm it.

When they say it is a 48" set-up, they mean in is designed for a 48" tank. It does not mean that the bulbs themselves are 48". Something else you can confirm with the vender.

Depending on the depth of you tank you have a couple of options for the days 10,000k - 12,000k - 20,000k. The deeper the tank the higher the kelvin (light color temp) But for most, the 10,000k will do. Two daylights and two actinic 03's would be my choice. I run that now with great success.

This is where the two balasts come in. I run the actinics 15hrs/day. On at 7:00 am and off at 10:00 pm. The daylights run from 10:30 am to 7:30 pm. This gives a more dawn to dusk affect and does not light shock the inhabitants going from dark to midday sun.

Cheers
Steve

[rjhiii]

So I am going to continue to show my ignorance here.

Santa was very good to me this year and I am now in the process of getting all I need to get a start on my reef tank. On hellolights.com the 48" VHO kit has 440 watts and is cheaper than the 48" Compact Flourescent kit which only has 384 watts.

I could afford the Compacts, but my thinnking was that the VHO have a higher output so I shold get them. What would you guys suggest?

Oh, and this might help. It is going to be on a 55g reef tank.

[steve1s]

8 watts per gallon may end up being a bit much, but should not give you any real concerns as long as you have a decent amount of substrate room for corals with lower requirements.

Out of a choice of PC or VHO, I would go with the VHO. They have better quality output/watt.

Cheers
Steve