lighting a 5g
 

just got a nice deep blue 5g and i cant find a affordable light that would work, 2x24" would hang 4" on each side of the tank :(, par38 seems to powerfull and too expensive, 70w mh is gonna toast everything, um what do i do? is ther such thing as a dual t5 setup smaller then 24"? i cant find anything

Yes, Current USA has 2 bulb 18" T5 Nova Extreme fixtures.

I guess it would depend on what you plan to put in it, right?

its a pico frag tank, its been running for 5 months in a plastic tub with leathers, mushrooms, xenia, and gsp under a clamp lamp with a spiral compact flourecent, everthing was transfered to the new tank and is doing great but i want to start keeping some sps in ther like digitada's, so i need better lighting, the 18w and 6w are the only 2 small fixtures i saw, but theyre not popular sizes and not the easiest or cheapest bulbs, so its kind of a huge turnoff, im not sure what other options i can use here :/

What about using MR16 LED reef bulbs? They come in 4x1W and 3x2W? You upgrade to higher wattage by adding more bulbs later.


BTW, how to post a pic here?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/5175109...57626054771511
http://www.flickr.com/photos/5175109...57626054771511

I'm pretty happy with the eco pico led strips running on my eco pico 5 gallon.. don't know how they'd do with anything needing high light requirements though. I have a kenya, some zoas, mushrooms, gsp and a leather all doing really well.

FYI - I have 3 of the 50/50, and one blue running.. so its not the "stock" lighting.

The EcoPico strips are great little lights. They will house low light corals just fine but I wouldn't even entertain the thought of any SPS.

I took some PAR readings on mine and they are weak but get the job done.

Here is a link to my thread on them:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2030577

I plan to add 2 more strips to increase the PAR a little bit.

I know you said the par 38 is too powerful but I have mine 10 inches off the surface of my 5.5 and it is zoa only.

Also in a year you will spend $40 on bulbs plus I am running 21 watts so my tank costs me less than $5 per month in electric. That includes filters too.

+1 on par38 bulb

i looked into the ecopico strips and enough to get what i want is gonna prob cost more than the par38, im about half way sold on the par38, i found it for $65+ shipping its dimmable and has a remote to dim it lol, pretty sweet

now what i would like to know so i can finally settle on the par38 is whats the spread of the light? whats the biggest tank i can light with a single par38 and still be able to keep sps? i do plan on upgrading the tank in a few months to something shallow with a nice footprint, maybe i can keep the sps directly under the light and then lps then softies around the edges of the tank, something like that :)

would u be so kind as to post a pic of your tank and specs on the light, is it dimmable, how bright u have yours set(if its dimmable), i dont really know too much about the lights other than ppl really like them and theyre not super expensive

bump can anyone plz post pics of ther par38
also does anyone have experience with this one http://www.ledwholesalers.com/store/...&productId=702
is it a good buy?

anyone?