Lighting Website Updates

[byerlydb]

Hello,
this is my first time posting. So I have a Red Sea max 34 gallon tank and I am trying to figure out how haed it would be to retro fit the tank with LED lighting. I found a setup that might work (Aqua Ray) but can not find out any prices or where to even buy it. Does anyone know what it would take to retro the hood of my system and what I should use?

[TropTrea]

Ypu 34 gallon tank has a surface area of 19" X 23" Which is a fairly unusual size. The Smallest T-5 fixtures made a 24" and there is limited selection of bulbs for these fixtures. There are several LED fixtures out there that would work for you but with the LED's the range is from fantastic to garbage and you really have to know what your buying or you will taken in that market.

If I were you I would look for roughly a 90 Watt LED fixture that is suspend able from the ceiling. If you do not have that option then when you consider making brackets for one your better off building your own LED fixture. Building your own LED fixture should cost you under $1.50 per watt unless you like loads of extra bells and whistles on it.

[Chosmic]

Hey, so I have a 20 gallon reef tank. 1 o. Clown, 1 blue spot puffer, 1 starry blenny, 2 peppermint shrimp, 2 turbo snail, 2 hermits, 3 zebra hermits, serpent sea star, and a blue mushroom coral. Could I get a recommendation on a light and protein skimmer? I'm new to this so I don't know much on lighting and protein skimmers. I have a 15watt light and obviously need to go up I'm thinking up near 80 watts maybe LEDs? I plan on getting more soft corals and maybe some LPS. Please help I want to upgrade as soon as possible
Also I am new to this lighting and protein stuff, please help!

[TropTrea]

Originally Posted by Chosmic

Hey, so I have a 20 gallon reef tank. 1 o. Clown, 1 blue spot puffer, 1 starry blenny, 2 peppermint shrimp, 2 turbo snail, 2 hermits, 3 zebra hermits, serpent sea star, and a blue mushroom coral. Could I get a recommendation on a light and protein skimmer? I'm new to this so I don't know much on lighting and protein skimmers. I have a 15watt light and obviously need to go up I'm thinking up near 80 watts maybe LEDs? I plan on getting more soft corals and maybe some LPS. Please help I want to upgrade as soon as possible
Also I am new to this lighting and protein stuff, please help!

For a tank ths small the Hang on Back Prism Protein skimmer would probably be one of your best bets.

For your lighting I would go with a h0me Built LED system. You should be able to get away with something in the range of 40 to 60 watts using quality LED's and be able to grow anything you want. LED selection I would go with 4 Neutral White, 8 Royal Blue, 4 True Blue LED's. You want the 5 Watt LED's from Cree with the exception of the True Blues that only come in 3 Watt. Run a pair of drivers with 4 Royal Blues and 4 Neutral Whites on one driver, then use the other 8 LED's on the other driver.

Running them all on 700 ma drivers would give you enough light for the mushroom corals and any other soft corals you wanted to add. This is 32 Watts total but with LEd lighting it is equivalent to 48 to 60 watts of other types. If you later decide to add Large Polyp Stoney corals one of the drivers to 1040ma will give you about 40 Watts of power. And if you run both at 1040 ma you get 48 Watts of power. If you really want to spike it up to keep the most light demanding corals and even a Clam then run a 1300ma driver on your white and 4 royal blues to push nearly 6 watts total. With Clams though you may want to add a pair of near UV LED's on the other Circuit.

Commercial LED's I would look for a fixture in the 80 watt range as most are not as efficient as home built units. For T-5 lighting you want to be around 100 total.

[hypnoj]

can anyone point me in the right direction to find PAR numbers for power compacts? I'm trying to find out the PAR output of the 29g biocube PC bulbs. Anyone have any info for me?

[jimmy2014]

Originally Posted by Antman

Quick question I now use a Aquactinics 175W MH with 2 t5s on my 54 corner tank -This unit sits right on top of my glass hood.
How much light is lost using a glass hood ?
I also may try to lift the unit a few inches of the glass ,how high should it be

It is upto the glass thickness and material inside, normally, about 3% ~4.5% will loss , Arylic could be more

[alanhuard]

can I take Aquarium Hoods and Aquarium Canopies lighting for my aquarium????

[Miz40B]

Which lights are causing my issue? Whites or blues? Or is it the lights?

40B/20L sump, in sump skimmer, sock, Sicce 2.0 return MP10/WP10 power heads.

I currently am running 180w (rated) LED's. 90 and 120 degree optics. Using a 10min/8hr ramping schedule, max being 30/50%
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1407014883.583574.jpg

I have what at first I thought were diatoms. But it is not going away after 9wks up and running. This brown stuff (at least it looks brown under the LED's) is mainly on the sand bed. With a light dusting on the back wall. I dose nothing.

2 lil fish. 2 Scarlet Hermits and a few assorted snails.

NO2/NO3=.0
Ammonia=.0
PH=8.0
Ca=440
Alk=8.2
Mag=1440
PO4=0.02

[Miz40B]

Issue resolved

[TropTrea]

Originally Posted by jimmy2014

It is upto the glass thickness and material inside, normally, about 3% ~4.5% will loss , Acrylic could be more

This depends on the Acrylic your using. High quality clear acrylic is only a fraction of the loss you get with glass. But lower grades can or none clear grades can drop down well below anything you want to use. If your getting your acrylic from a reputable source they can provide you with the information of how much filtering power they have and which frequencies.

[jkhudson]

I'm setting up a standard 55 and I have a retrofit canopy holding 4 T5's. What bulbs will give me the best light for monti's and LPS? TIA.

[TropTrea]

Originally Posted by jkhudson

I'm setting up a standard 55 and I have a retrofit canopy holding 4 T5's. What bulbs will give me the best light for monti's and LPS? TIA.

there is no quick answer to this. Personal color taste is a very big issue. However the basic is to use 3 bulbs with a strong blue spectrum like the Blue Plus. Then for the 4th bulb you chose one that will at least a little red and bring up the full spectrum to what best pleases your eye. If you like a bright tank something in the 6,500 K family, if you like a bluer looking tank then something that is a mix of full spectrum and blues.

The range of the spectrum would be from the whitest to the bluest...
6,500K
10,000K
an Aqua Blue Bulb
the Coral Plus bulbs
and last the "purple bulbs"

Remember with just 4 bulbs the combinations are more limited not allowing as subtle of a changes between steps as someone running more bulbs.

[Ty1e]

Hey guys,
I have an ATi hybrid LED 8xT-5 unit, I'll need new bulbs in the next few months, whats a good bulb combo and LED intensity mix for this unit?

It's over a 40X20X20 SPS tank

[TNTFISHY]

I last bought online, but shop closed.

Amazon? Any suggestions?

[hummer41269]

iv heard good things about this brand Radion XR30w LED

[moondoggy4]

Originally Posted by TNTFISHY

I last bought online, but shop closed.

Amazon? Any suggestions?

I used to buy fro RG but they are closed I will be giving Marine Depot a try they claim if you buy 6 bulbs 54'' models there is not shipping cost Not sure but I will be finding out tonight.

[Solarlight]

Hi guys, I am new to this forum, Just thought you guys should know I am an Electronic Technician, and I specialize in LED Lighting. I have been building and testing LED light fixtures for many applications, mainly outdoor park/recreation area lighting.
I stumbled onto this forum just doing research on new led ideas and applications. I do not have an aquarium set up of my own, but I do know lighting, LED LIGHTING! I'm here to help with questions possibly recommendations and just some cool stuff when it comes to LEDS. Thanks for reading guys and gals. Jim

[BlueReefMan]

Interested to see if anyone has experience regarding using the submersible led as an alternative to setting up a Reverse Daylight Photosynthesis system for stabilizing nighttime pH.
My idea would be to light the underside of the tankscape rock structure at night in order to keep photosynthesis going 24/7.
The concept is part of what I think of as an "in tank refugium" an idea I am considering before I set up my next system. Appreciate any experience based advice before I learn the hard way !

[ecniVince]

I like kessils. Got the 360w's

[dukduk]

Originally Posted by Solarlight

Hi guys, I am new to this forum, Just thought you guys should know I am an Electronic Technician, and I specialize in LED Lighting. I have been building and testing LED light fixtures for many applications, mainly outdoor park/recreation area lighting.
I stumbled onto this forum just doing research on new led ideas and applications. I do not have an aquarium set up of my own, but I do know lighting, LED LIGHTING! I'm here to help with questions possibly recommendations and just some cool stuff when it comes to LEDS. Thanks for reading guys and gals. Jim

Hi Jim, I'm in Bellevue. There's a local forum www.newagereefs.com and the Nebraska Reef Society on facebook. I'm sure local folks would be thrilled to have you around to ask questions

[hypnoj]

Jim (solarlight) how hard is it to split and lengthen a xbox one usb 3 cable? Xbox has a proprietary end on their new connect and they don't sell extension cables for it. Is it hard to cut and splice in a usb 3 cable?

[pillar coral]

Is 600 watts of LED's too much for a 90 gallon tank if I use the dimmers correctly?

[Sk8r]

102 bowfront wedge, 36" on 2 sides, bow on the 3rd, 22" between sandbed and water surface.
Current lighting: Ushio 250 10,000k (1); with 2 actinic HO on separate ballast.

Looking at: Ecotech radion xr30w g3 pro versus Ecotech radion xr30w g3.
Want to know A) whether 1 unit can replace what I have for lps stony
and B) if I don't adjust my tank lighting from my cellphone (my cell is dumb) ---is the pro that much better?
And C) do I understand correctly that there is no ballast for radion?

[moondoggy4]

Originally Posted by moondoggy4

I used to buy fro RG but they are closed I will be giving Marine Depot a try they claim if you buy 6 bulbs 54'' models there is not shipping cost Not sure but I will be finding out tonight.

Well I opened my box of bulbs from Marine Depot last night, since I finally got all of my bits for my Maristar II light, well when I opened the box I found all of the bulbs broken 6 to be exact

I used always order from Reef Geek and I never had any problems.

The outside box was not damaged the bulbs where put in a large triangle box and the bulbs where installed with two carboard boxes with a hole in the middle and the bulbs went through there, some bubble wrap around it.

[FrankieFreckle]

Hello. I just swapped from a 50 gal bow front tank to a tall 70 gal tank that's 36" wide. Now I want to change my lighting from T5's to LED's. I've been doing a little searching and noticed there's a whole lot of LED's out there. I think I found a decent one but I'm still a bit skeptical. So I was hoping to get some advice on what I'm looking at. Its a EVO Quad 30" Timer LED Aquarium Light Marine Coral Reef Cichlid 36x 3W 75 cm. Do you think 36x 3 watt LED's will be sufficient for my reef?