gamble on NO lighting

[englishreefer]

I am just in the process of starting a 5g. It is about 8'' deep to sand bed. I know that many of you will argue to invest in new lighting. However i am young and poor. I am going to use 2x 14w standard flouresence and a 9w which already fits into the hood. All of these will be 18,000k. The reason being i have all the equipment already. This gives me 36w, One of my downsides will be that my reflectors are going to be a pain to make as bulb spacing is going to be pretty tight between the 2 14w. I want to know what you guys think about this set up. i am going to start on low light corals and work my way up, seeing what does well. Do you think it could be possible to keep some sps's at the top of the tank. Please any views are welcome as i know not a lot is talked about on NO bulbs anymore.

[jasontatro]

I wouldn't recommend SPS under that lighting... they wouldn't do well at all. Stick with low light corals like shrooms and other softies.

[invert]

Hi I got your message. I have kept a tank with the same lighting before. You can get away with most if not all softy's but they don’t grow very fast. Hard corals are a no no under that lighting I tried them and it doesn’t work. I’m working on a diy lighting unit so if ya want to get started with softy’s I will keep you updated with my lighting. Also have you looked into the asl t5's you could prob fit 2 18 watts or even 2 24 watt tubes over you tank. Then you could get away with a few lps and sps.

 

One thing I did have a prob with was zoos they seemed to loose some of there colour so if you want the keep they will need to be at the top of the tank.

 

One last thing I would assume you using crushed coral as a substrate. I would highly advise against it as it will trap waste that will pollute your tank due to its large grain size.

[englishreefer]

Thanks for the tips. Damn right about the substarate. in my 29 fowlr i have a mix of crushed coral, that bio active stuff (forget the name). and some very fine white sand. Sand bed is always debry free, never have to interfear. But in this 5g, I have crushed coral. I have been using the tank for about the last 2 months as somewhere to store my leftover lr. Literally falling out the edge with my pink lobster as a resident. Now that ive taken all this out and left about 6-7 lbs of lr in their the sand is filth mate. i had to put a small amount of filter floss at the front of my moby dick filter and stir the bed about 20 times over a day just to get the bed clean. Might be an idea to add some finer sand to it.

As far as lighting goes, I havn't really looked recently. But about 18 months ago when i was setting up nano attempt no.1. I couldn't find anything in stores. None of them had even heard of t5's. I had about just as much luck on the internet. I now know that t5's are readally available. Do you know of anywhere that does pc yet, or any good internet stores that sell good cheap lighting. I am interested in your lighting setup, could you please give me some specs and parts list. I read these forums and feel left in the dark when i'm reading about lighting, as you know the americans have about 5 years technology over us. I managed to buy a second hand twin 150w mh pendant off a lfs for £45, which i must say iwas very excited about. This is now sitting gutted under my bed. Thrown the actual pendant away. Do you think it could be possible to diy one over my 5, or is the heat just going to be uncontrollable.

[englishreefer]

I have just been doing abit of browsing. At www.fishathome.co.uk i have found twin 24w pc's for £70.99. And the bulbs are around £10 each. How do these prices sound to you. Can i get any cheaper, as i am young and poor. However this will mean i won't be able to use my moby hood with filter. Might as well go build my self a fuge in the process, hehe.

[invert]

The halide should be fine I had a 150watt over a 3.6 for a while. The temp didn’t change. As long as you keep the sun out and make sure the room is ventilated not just kept with the door closed. If you are having problems just use some computer fans. Your best bet if you went with the halide is to hang it so all the heat can rise away from the tank. Also I would use a 20.000k bulb to get some nice colour and to keep the intensity down for the corals. Great minds think alike.

 

The DIY lighting I was talking about is using ballasts from old energy saving lamps to run power compacts. Here is an article I found. http://www.cucumber.demon.co.uk/lights/diy/

 

Or if you can order through a business you can get a ballast and lamp holder from RS components.

You will need a PL-L ballast http://rswww.com/cgi-bin/bv/browse/Module....stockNo=3426950 and these 2G-11 lamp holders http://rswww.com/cgi-bin/bv/browse/Module....atoid=-85546291 plus any wire that is needed to wire it all up to drive ASL compact t5.

 

Hope that helps and soz for the long post

[englishreefer]

Thanks for the info. on that site you just mention i make it £54.54 for 2x 24w ballast and lamp holders. Plus whatever wiring needed. I will look into it, but personally i'd rather spend the extra £15 and get the complete unit from www.fishathome.co.uk. Have you checked it out. It looks like a tidy little unit.