lighting

[ocean]

Hi everybody, as you see iam new here so i was thinking of changing my lights on my sw tank currently i have 120w canopy i want to take that off and put on a compact fluorescent fixture that's 110w and a reg. fluorescent fixture with the blue actenic and a 10k so that would give me 190w total what do you guys think of this??

[dakar]

Kinda hate to answer a question with a question, but what are you planning on keeping? So long as you are creating more light than heat then doubling your effective lighting can't hurt, that much is for sure. what are you going to run int he PC fixture? Might consider running the 10K's in the PC and actinic in the regular tubes, should get a pretty even balance that way.

[ocean]

I eventually want to have about 100 pounds of live rock so that's almost 2lbs of rock to a gallon i have two orange fire fish and some turbo snails and red crabs and a coral angel beauty fish right now. so after i get the rock where i want it, then i want to start a reef of some anemone's, polyps and soft corals... I belive that the bulbs in the PC fixture are GE (general electric?) they are 55 w a piece i will probably upgrade these. to what I'm not sure. should i put two 10k in the PC and then run the moon lights on the reg fixture. for right now i want to put that PC to work so your suggestions would be key..... ;)

[Reptoreef]

The main question here is... are you planning on future upgrades??? Honestly, how much are you willing to invest for those upgrades right now???

[ocean]

i plan on slowly adding it up man i cant afford to dump 500$ on live rock all at once so 10lbs here and there sounds reasonable. once the rock is where i want it then i will buy all the other goodies. :D

[Grandmaster_Toad]

I have an Ice Cap 660 Ballast with endcaps and heatsink if your need to upgrade for cheap to a nice VHO system.
Shipped for $150
GT

[ocean]

whats the dimensions and Watts on that toad?

[Grandmaster_Toad]

It will run a number of combinations from 24" bulbs to 48" bulbs. It will run up to 16' of lighting. Didnt see any wattage indicators on the ballast. Hope this helps.
GT

[jerryc]

VHO is not rated in watts but foot of lamps and next to MH in lighting [IMO]

ocean if you wont a good lighting setup the one GT is offering is a good one

just build your on top for the tank and put the VHO in it

[ocean]

#ed_op#DIV#ed_cl#Thanks for the suggestions.#ed_op#/DIV#ed_cl#