Lighting questions from a newbie

[pramberg]

I am planning on building a canopy for my 75G saltwater tank. Tank has 100+ lbs of live rock, and is being used as fish only at the moment. I would like corals, mostly soft, but I don't want to limit myself as I may want to mix in some hard corals in the future. My tanks is 48" X 18" X 18". I do not have air conditioning or the ability to have air conditioning in the room with my tank, and the room can get pretty warm in summer.

What would be an ideal lighting setup for me? I've looked at MH, PC, and VHO lighting, and my head is spinning with information. Would 260W power compact be enough for me, with my tank only being 18" deep? Money is a my biggest downfall. I'm looking for my cheapest solution that will still get me by.

Any recommendations, or perhaps you have something for sale that would work for me?

Let me know, thanks guys. I appreciate a local community like this.

[hypertech]

I would consider T5 with individual reflector. If I were to do a bigger tank, I've decided that is what I will do.

As long as you leave space in your canopy, you could add more bulbs if your lighting needs increase in the future.

[David Grigor]

T5s will give you more usuable light with less wattage than PCs. However, not all T5s are the same like Matt mentions. You need good quality individual reflectors as well as good ventalation to keep the bulbs cool thus more light.

[pramberg]

Any advice on how to get my hands on t-5s with good individual reflectors? Are there any websites or lfs you recommend? Also, am I looking at buying a retro-kit? I'm really struggling on figuring out what retro kit even means. I'm guessing it's the hardware required to light the bulbs, and I would implement that into my canopy design, and buy the bulbs separate. Am I correct, or way off?

[storrisch]

www.reefgeek.com for t5 retrokits

[David Grigor]

I would implement that into my canopy design, and buy the bulbs separate. Am I correct, or way off?

Yep. You got it.

In addition to reefgeedk. diyreef.com has good pricing as well.

I prefer the icecap reflectors as the output is the most intense, the tekII reflectors are pretty good as well, not quite as intense but spreads the light out a big further. TekII would be a slight advantage when trying to use less bulbs a little further apart.

Your going to need the ballast, endcaps w/standoffs, bulbs, and reflectors. As long as your using a canopy and don't need a fixture, retro is for sure the way to go, gives you more freedom with placement and the number of bulbs to run.

For a 75g, I'd start with 3 or 4 bulb config. you can always add more later......

[pramberg]

I checked out both websites, and I noticed at reefgeek that they sell a 2 X 54w HO, and a 2 X 54w Very HO. Shouldn't VHO bulbs be nearly twice as much wattage?
I also stumbled across this website and CoralVue retro kits (http://www.aquacave.com/detail.aspx?ID=1146). Are they any good? They also come with bulbs, but don't mention the wattage. Should I assume they are 54w?
Last question for now. When you say I should get 3 or 4 T5s with their own reflectors as a start, what's the total wattage you are recommending. I wouldn't ask these questions if I hadn't first researched, and am just not finding a great article on a setup for me. If anyone has a good site or article about lighting, let me know. I'd like to read it. This is the best I've found so far (http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/saltwater/greco_lighting.html). Thanks again everyone.

[storrisch]

I don't know that there is one 'great' article. I think your best bet is to do a lot of research on various forums. I know there is a 70page thread about t5's over at RC.

[mattb]

I checked out both websites, and I noticed at reefgeek that they sell a 2 X 54w HO, and a 2 X 54w Very HO. Shouldn't VHO bulbs be nearly twice as much wattage?
I also stumbled across this website and CoralVue retro kits (http://www.aquacave.com/detail.aspx?ID=1146). Are they any good? They also come with bulbs, but don't mention the wattage. Should I assume they are 54w?
Last question for now. When you say I should get 3 or 4 T5s with their own reflectors as a start, what's the total wattage you are recommending. I wouldn't ask these questions if I hadn't first researched, and am just not finding a great article on a setup for me. If anyone has a good site or article about lighting, let me know. I'd like to read it. This is the best I've found so far (http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/saltwater/greco_lighting.html). Thanks again everyone.
When they say VHO re: T5s they are talking about Ice Cap ballasts that overdrive the T5s. So rather than a typical 48" T5 using 54 watts, it's closer to 80-85 watts, there's also (obviously) an increase in light output too. I'd say that if you are looking at keeping sps, which your first posts says your are not, the Ice Caps would be worth it. In your case, they may not be... Though like David said, the SLRs, reflectors are the best...... There are a lot of T5 threads on RC as Storrich mentioned..

[David Grigor]

For a 75g tank which is only 20" deep, there should be no need for overdriving the T5s. Standard driven will give you plenty of light to still keep anything and everything your heart desires with a 75g. I would only consider the added expense of icecap ballast if you for sure are going to do SPS/Acro dominated tank AND there is a good chance you will be upgrading to a deeper tank in the future.

Regarding the coralvue, there really isn't enough $$ savings for me to justify the gamble. I have not seen any test cases that have compared the reflectors to the Icecap or TekII. Until such as done, I'd stick with the known good performers. Icecap SLR being my prefered.

When I did the watt readings on my standard driven, by the time your account for heat and ballast inefficeincies, the total INPUT watts of a 54W bulb is 60W. So 3 X 60w = 180W, or 240W for a 4 bulb. This is on standard driven ballasts such as those included in the retros. Don't be fooled by the total wattage. Remember, light output is what you really want to measure. Attempting to compare lighting setup X vs. Y by using input wattage is a bad assumption.

For a community 75g tank, 3 bulb will work just fine. A 3 bulb will require 2 ballasts so you will still be able to control actinic for dawn/dusk. In future if you feel you need it, it's easy to upgrade to a 4 bulb by simply added the other bulb/end/reflector since you would already have the capacity for a 4th with the ballasts. I personally, wouldn't add the 4th now simply because you may be perfectly happy with 3 and why spend the money on the hardware or electricity if it's not needed.

I have a 3 bulb on my 75g frag tank and would do the same for a community tank.