Lighting Education for Beginners

[Rdr4evr69]

Let me start out by saying I have kept aquariums for 18 years, only the last 5 with SW and Reefs.. I started with a 75 and now have a 90RR.. The RR is the way to go by far, whatever size!!! I will say this many times in this hopefully not too long thread, SAVE MONEY BEFORE YOU START BUILDING.... I have done a lot of trial and error, a lot! Luckily I have pleanty of money to "??waste??" or whatever you call it, but i know a lot of you dont and that is all well and good. Please take this thread as POSITIVE help not meant to be mean or negative in any way!

On to my topic, First save as much money up before you start and do LOTS of research FIRST. Lighting is one of the Coolest things about reef tanks, IMO. It makes all the difference in the world in how your tank looks. I started with a PC hood with 4 x 65w was nice but not enough. Then on to VHO ( 4 x 110) Nice but no more than the PC and IMO not as nice of color as the PC's. So I added 2 175w MH 10K's to it, Looked pretty good....but a lil too yellow. NOW time to upgrade to the 90...So did all that and my new canopy is 47" wide, so VHO's didnt fit.....Argggggg...trial and error....lol So I went with 46.5 T5s and my 175MH 10K's, now way too yellow, so I went to 20K 175W MH. Looks nice but now too blue....... Arrrrrrrrrrghhhh. NOW on to what I hope to be the final light for SOME time......I am ordering Aqualight PRO Retrofit, comes with PC's (2x 96w) and 2 HQI 150w's with moonlights as I truely miss them from my OLD PC hood....I am hoping this will be perfect!!!!!

So I went through a lot of money changing this way and that Just thought I would share my Opinions and my "research" for those of you wanting to get into this addiction, or UMuM Hobby....SO my advise to those of you who are trying to get going is SAVE as much Loot as eyou can and do lots of research before jumping into it and planning as you go.
Seacrest.............OUT.....