Hello new to 3reef! need some advice on lights

Hello everybody, I am new at all this its my first fish tank. I was wondering if any of you have any opinions on some cheap but good light fixtures for a tank. I have a 54g corner tank what do you guys recommend ? and i was looking at the Odyssea 24" 380W Metal Halide System with Power Compact are they any good ? thanks in advance for the advice.

 

welcome.. I personally dont know much about Odyssea lights, but I know a few people on here run them, so Im sure they will chime in soon enough..

 

thanks, are there any that you would recommend that the price isn't too high. kind of short on cash so trying to get the beast deal for the price.

 

What are the dimensions of your tank and what type of livestock are you planning on keeping? Will you have a canopy or do you need a fixture to hang or put legs on?

Odyssea are on the lower end of the quality scale from what I've heard but maybe they will be fine for what you need. However keep in mind that light is basically food for the coral, so IMO it's not something to skimp on if you want your coral to thrive.

 

well my friend recently got the 100 dollar basic metal halide from Odyssea and it comes with 2 14watt actinic if i remember correctly. its 150 watt metal halide bulb at 15000k is still too yellow for me. the ballast seems rather very flimsy but overall for 100 bucks? i cant ask for more. i would indeed change the bulb but overall i think its a good buy. hope this helps.

 

That's a problem with some of the cheaper fixtures, if they come with cheap bulbs a lot of people don't like the colors/performance they get out of them and then change the bulbs right away which can be another $100-200 pretty easy right off the bat. Nicer fixtures a lot of the time come with better bulbs.

 

thanks I was also looking at those too. I want to keep fish and all kind of coral, not sure exactly what but i don't want to limit myself because of the lights. yea i guess your right but some of those light fixtures really hurt your wallet. my friend is selling me Coralife 20 Inch Aqualight With 1-96W 50/50 4-Tube Square Pin Base (with fans) for $50 is that a waste a money ? and would that limit me from any coral ? I also have a canopy.

 

haha well once you go halides i dont see any reason to go back. i would definitely go with metal halides. i started out with T5 and was not satisfy. it does hurt your wallet but well worht it. ;D

 

also how many watts do you recommend for the tank ?

 

The fixture you mentioned, the 96w one would be a waste of money if you don't want to be limited by light IMO.

What are the dimensions of the tank? A good T5 fixture will almost definitely work just fine unless the tank is super deep. I don't believe "once you go MH you never go back" lots of people prefer T5 over MH, and vice versa.

If you can look into the pros and cons of MH vs T5 for yourself to see which one you like better, both work great for certain applications, and people have preferences both ways.