29gal Tank Lighting Recommendations

Discussion in 'Reef Lighting' started by mario8402, Jan 26, 2007.

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  1. pshootr

    pshootr Fire Worm

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    Don't throw in the towel so easy. There are many options, and it can be confuseing, but the more you read the more you will learn. Sounds like you want at least some sort of coral "softies may be" but you want a lighting system other than MH. No problem, many non halide lighting systems will work fine for soft corals. I would first encourage you to keep on talking with people on this forum, there is alot of great sourses of info here. Also I will offer this link marineandreef.com/ Aquarium Reef Lighting Chart--Find the best aquarium hood lighting for all sizes of reek tanks to a lighting chart which shows recommended lighting fixtures for various tank sizes, depending on which corals you want to keep. Just keep on reading you will find the rite solution for yourself.;)
     
    Last edited: Jan 31, 2007
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  3. mario8402

    mario8402 Fire Shrimp

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    awesome. most useful info yet with that link.. so it seems to me, with everywhere that I have been looking, is that the highest watts that I can get with a 30" fixture is 130watts total.. 65 w/ a 10,000k and 65 with the actinic.. i guess the final question is now t5 or pc w/ matching wattage
     
  4. Frizza

    Frizza Coral Banded Shrimp

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    Here is a link of a huge tank that is run on T5's and it looks like they have all sorts of coral in there! The lights are supplied by a company in the UK called D&D Aquarium solutions. Question is whether or not the power difference between UK and US makes a difference in the quality of the lights or not? I'm not very good with electrics so I have no idea.

    Heres the link: Translated version of http://archiv.korallenriff.de/Mohr/hauptaquarium.html
     
  5. turbo4603

    turbo4603 Teardrop Maxima Clam

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    That amount of watts sounds good to me for a 29 gal. Now the hard part relies on finding a fixture. I would personally try to retrofit a fixture, or talk to a lfs so they can do it for you. Once you got the idea in your head of what you whant, it wont be too hard to find it.
    In my opinion, MH is the best, followed by T5, then power compacts, then the vhos.
    Off course, every system has it pros and cons. So... good luck finding the system you whant. Keep us posted.
     
  6. mario8402

    mario8402 Fire Shrimp

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  7. 4G1v3N

    4G1v3N Spaghetti Worm

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    Mario the light that you have linked is a PC which is the same type of light that i run. Now if you get this light on your 29G you will have around 4.5 watts per gallon which is pretty good for coral. now i dont know if you are going to be adding live rock or live sand, if you do it will make your true water volume even lower and your wattage higher! IMO this is a great light for you to get!
     
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  9. Salty Marine

    Salty Marine Astrea Snail

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  10. mario8402

    mario8402 Fire Shrimp

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    Those are cool. Thanks for the link.. Only problems I can forsee with them are
    1.They only come in 24" and 36" which is either 6" too short or 6" too long lol
    2.Its 96 watts total power b/t 4 bulbs for that T5 and 130 for the PC ...
    2. I thought they were supposed to have a blue bulb of some type??



    I currently have a bag of live sand in there off the shelf(not sure what the weight was, i want to say 14lbs??)
    And I just bought another 16lbs of rock or so, so I am up to approx 30lbs of rock
     
  11. turbo4603

    turbo4603 Teardrop Maxima Clam

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    Hey mario, if you go to my profile, you can see i have two pics all the way in the bottom. My 125 gallon tank i just started is runing with t5s. The other tank, my 40, is runing with power compacts. You can compare somewhat the Coloration.
     
  12. 4G1v3N

    4G1v3N Spaghetti Worm

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    Well there you go, your water volume is going to be less than 29 g because of LR and LS. i would estimate your true water volume at aroung 20G maybe less. so your watt per gallon is going to be atleast 6.5 if not more. I would say IMO that those are the best lights for that setup. I wouldent bother with MH because of evaporation. you would need an auto top off and you would be adding allot of water to that tank with MH. Go for it man!
    -Jordan