I thought things looked funny, Dam!!

Discussion in 'General Reef Topics' started by damon, Jan 12, 2011.

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  1. damon

    damon Sea Dragon

    Joined:
    Dec 6, 2010
    Messages:
    543
    Location:
    Santa Cruz Ca
    So I was looking at my 40g and thought it looked a little washed out and the corals did not look so happy. I know my lights are old and need to be replaced soon, but it looked really bad today. So I looked in the hood, and sure enough I had not 1 bulb blown, but two. It just had to be both my actinics :uhoh::uhoh::uhoh2::uhoh2:. Good thing I had one extra one in the garage, but now I'm not sure if I want to get new bulbs or bite the bullet and get leds. I really want leds, but can't afford to get what I want for the tank right now. If I get the new bulbs for my T5s I'll have half good bulbs that in a month that I won't need......... maybe if I make and use my nano tank light I can get by with a cheaper light and not waist money until I can make the bigger one. Soooo do you guys think I can get away with replacing 4 really old 39w T5s with 12 cree leds with 65 degree optics on it? I won't be able to have the light very high off the tank, so maybe I should skip the optics for wider spread of light because the tank is 36in L x 15 1/2in D x 17in T. Oh I don't know what to do, I did not what to have to make this choice until at next month! Grrrrrrrrr very frustrating.... but my fault.
     
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  3. skurious

    skurious Sailfin Tang

    Joined:
    Jun 22, 2009
    Messages:
    1,720
    Location:
    Cedar Rapids, IA
    you could always buy cheap replacement bulbs for the time being, that way if you do decide to go led you wont have spent too much.
     
  4. damon

    damon Sea Dragon

    Joined:
    Dec 6, 2010
    Messages:
    543
    Location:
    Santa Cruz Ca
    it's going to be 50$ to get the T5s:-/