Need help choosing!

[MizTanks]

Look guys I'm serious when I said I'm DIY ignorant. I don't even know WHAT a ballest is, nor an endcap. I do feel I first need to understand the *workings* first before I even try and build my own. I know only what I've read about what works best for corals, but I don't know the whys. I know MH stands for Metal Halid and that they comsume a lot of energy, get very hot and are expensive to replace but are wonderful for corals. So maybe this would be a wonderful thread idea. One that explains the importance and workings of *lighting*. So telling me to get this and that, do this and that does absolutely no good. It's because of this exact issue that I got rid of a 75g predrilled tank that was *given* to me. I was so overwhelmed! I didn't know what to do with it! I didn't know how to set it up. I didn't know what to get, or even what was needed.
I live in a town where the only people I know who keep SW are the ones from the LFS and they are not very helpful. They are not into SW like I find here. It's frustrating to think I could have a big tank if only I knew what you all do. I'v got a 26g bowfront tank that I'd like a light setup for. Can't I buy one already made, with the right watage?

[Sir Patrick]

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...0&pcatid=16770

The 24" x 8"- Its a 4 bulb set up. Good light at a very good price! Only drawback is that the bulbs that come with the fixture are recomended to be replaced with heigher quality bulbs for best performance. No need to do it right away though.

You can buy it, put it on the tank, plug it in and you will have light!!

I am looking at the 36" 4 bulb set up myself, If I decide not to do MH w/ VHO suppliments.

[MizTanks]

Thank you thank you thank you!! Buuuut, there's only 96w total. I can get higher wat bulbs right?

[Poseidon]

No, you can't. However, WATTS is measure of POWER CONSUMPTION, NOT light output. Those 4 24W T5 lamps will produce a LOT more PAR for your tank then 96W of PC light could ever dream of. That fixture has reflectors that direct the light from all 360 degrees of the T5 bulb into the tank, a PC fixture at best, puts less then 270 degrees of bulb area into the tank, and that is only if you have reflectors for each of the bulbs, which I have never seen.

Have you ever seen a T5 fixture and a PC fixture side by side? The difference is staggering!

[jojo22]

Also keep in mind that any slot where you place a blue bulb (acintic) that light does not help your corals at all. It simply makes them look better to your eyes by making the colors pop. So a 96W 50/50 bulb is not giving you the same PAR as a 96 W 10K bulb. But the colors of your coral will look better with the 50/50

[Sir Patrick]

^ beg to differ. There are new bulbs (cant remember exactly which off the top of my head) that make actinics with very good par these days.

I will look them up and post the info later.

[jojo22]

But on a general basis 99.999999999% of acintic bulbs are not going to give PAR worthy of mentioning nor calculating.

The person posting this has admitted she is new to the hobby and having trouble keeping everything straight. So why make things more confusing. Also note that my post referred to PC lighting so please point me to a PC (not VHO or T-5) bulb with a Par that can sustain corals. Or to get more technical my post said "So a 96W 50/50 bulb is not giving you the same PAR as a 96 W 10K bulb" so please show me a 50/50 PC bulb that will produce the same par as a 10K PC of the same wattage. seeing as to how the OP stated she is looking for compact lighting in her first post. People really do need to relax, not everything has to me a technical showdown. Sometimes advise can be just that and need not make things more difficult for the OP to understand, or hijack their thread.

There is an exception to every rule, people keep reefs under HPS lighting, but it is not commonly accepted nor suggested. Just because something can be done does not always make it right for the situation or the reefer at hand.