Coralife Hang-on MH

[LTF]

I'm looking at getting the Coralife Aqualight Advanced Series Hang-on Tank Mount Fixture

https://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_lighti...ced.asp?CartId=

I was wondering if anyone has one? How do you like it? How far above the tank do you have to have it? etc...

 

thanks for any info.

[NewSchool]

I have one and I have mixed feelings about it. I love the light and the clip on unit, problem is that there is no glass shield. It comes with whats called a splash guard to protect the bulb from water but I'm sure that that is not enough to protect from UV.

Only the Coralife bulbs have built in UV protection so unless you have a glass cover on your tank or DIY some sort of glass protection, you're stuck with the Coralife bulbs which in my opinion (I have only seen the 20K bulb) look terrible!

I had a Phoenix 14K bulb on and burned all my SPS to a crisp. Beautiful color of light though!

[accord86]

REally?! So I would need some type of tempered glass for UV protection? Is there any mod for this? I have a pheonix 150w de bulb on the way in the mail for this same fixture and I thought the splash guard would be enough UV protection.

[Samc]

The only mod I can think of is to get a 500 watt halogen fixture from lowes/HD/Walmart and use that glass. If it fits, its the cheapest that works well. I don't have a coralife fixture, so no clue if it will fit! Also, if you can hang the fixture, I would spend a little less on a 250 watt de setup from oceanencounter.com!

 

Sam

[LTF]

Thanks Sam.

 

Here is my dilemna...I am setting up a 20L tank. I just bought a Coralife aqualight hood which has two 65w bulbs in it but for some reason that doesn't seem bright enough. Any suggestions on what I can add to increase the amount of light getting to my tank if I don't go with the hang on mh?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Samc]

What bulbs are you using? That is usually the easiest way to change something with lighting, the 50/50 pc's are generally the worst par wise, you would be better off with one daylight and one actinic bulb. Otherwise, the pendant I mentioned, an Aquamedic oceanlight from hellolights.com or a T-5HO setup. A four bulb finnex will be much brighter than the two pc's your using now, and would only be $115 at premiumaquatics.com. Unfortunatly, it only comes in 24" or 36", so you would have to find a way to deal with that. Plus, it doesn't have individual reflectors like the tek has, which is where a good 50% of the light output of T-5's come from (even the tek's aren't that good, icecap and aqualux are far superior T-5 reflectors).

 

What are you looking to keep? Are you running a top of some type that needs to be cleaned? Is your water "dirty"? How old are the bulbs?

 

Sam

[LTF]

The fixture I have has a daylight and an actinic (65w each). The water is a tiny bit murky as I've only set things up this week (rock only so far) I'd like to keep some 'shrooms and other soft corals. I'll check out the suggestions you've given me. Thank you so much.

[Samc]

I think you'll find when the water clears you'll have plenty of light. Shrooms and such should be fine under 130 watts of pc in that tank, people keep montis under the same conditions!

 

Sam

[bobioden]

Do a search, there is a HUGE thread on this pendant.

 

Nevermind, here is the thread.

 

Coralife Pendant.

 

HTH

 

Bob

[Mojorizn]

I have this unit and it came with a glass UV guard...hmmm