Quash Posted April 17, 2004 Share Posted April 17, 2004 I have currently the corallife 28W 50/50 aqualight. Now I would like to upgrade my lights. So I have 150 bux to spend. I wanna get some good lights. Im a complete noob at lighting. What would you guys recommend. I've been reading alot on lighting setups, and lots of people have the 70W MH setup plus actinic setup. Will 150 bux cover this? Or what lighting should I get/build whatever. Im still reading on the forums now, so I thought I would start a thread. Link to comment
AReeferIsExpensive Posted April 17, 2004 Share Posted April 17, 2004 well with 150 bux i dont see you getting really far with MH... the bulbs are under 100, then you need the ballast and pendant, plus s&h, then replacment bulbs, sounds over 150! Unless you find some good deals that i dont know about, i think that the best u could prob go for is a 96w 50/50 PC...coralife or quad. They are normally around 90-150 depending on where you live and get it from. id also highly suggest getting light legs with it, because on my 10 gallon w/ the coralife 96 i was having heat issues..... Link to comment
Quash Posted April 17, 2004 Author Share Posted April 17, 2004 cool i guess ill be hittin up the 96 watter, MH maybe when i graduate Link to comment
redhot13 Posted April 18, 2004 Share Posted April 18, 2004 Hey, I have the coralife 96 watt hood for sale on this board for $80 shipped to the US! Let me know if you are interested... There is a pic in the for sale section. look up my name and you'll find it.. Link to comment
ReeferMonkey Posted April 21, 2004 Share Posted April 21, 2004 LampDr sells 70w MH kits for $140. I think he's out of bulbs right now but I know he has ballasts and sockets. You can get bulbs from a couple of different places (online vendors) or from local reefers. If you don't want the Ushio 10k anyway, it shouldn't be a problem. I ordered one from Jorge but haven't had the chance to set it up. The wiring job is excellent and the components are all high-quality. Since you have a 28w PC you can just buy an actinic 03 from somewhere (supposedly Hello Lights has the best) and pick up a 7" PC reflector for the halide, and you're set. Check out LampDr's various threads. It might run you a hair over $150 but it will definitely be worth it. Don't blow $100 on the 96w PQ just to upgrade to the 70w MH later. Link to comment
Quash Posted April 21, 2004 Author Share Posted April 21, 2004 so are you saying, grab an actinic 03, and a 7" PC reflector for the halide from home depot or something, and a MH kit and bulb? Retro fit it into my current aqualight? Link to comment
ReeferMonkey Posted April 21, 2004 Share Posted April 21, 2004 No, not exactly. I'm not entirely familiar with the Aqualight series, you might be able to retro the MH in there (a' la' KrackerG's CSL hood MH retro) but I don't own an Aqualight and am not familiar with it's dimensions, etc. If it looks like you have a bit of room to play with (and are handy at DIY stuff) then by all means, go for it. Ok, I just browsed the Aqualight on Google. It's 20" x 5" x 2.5", which you could use to fit a MH retro, most likely. Odds are you wouldn't have room for a PC in there unless you got a 9w, and then the MH would be off-center I think. This could be overcome by using a 20k bulb. The single aqualights don't have fans either, so I don't know if heat would be an issue. I think the distance off the tank might be ok... someone else would have to corroborate. I suppose that if KrackerG is working in a similar capacity, you could too. You would also have to put a sheet of glass in there to block the UV rays from the DE bulb. All in all it would require some ingenuity to retro that into there. I'm not sure of your level of comfort wiring up electronics and the like. With some effort it would most likely be doable. You would probably have to monitor it for heat, etc. to make sure it works out all right. The other option would be to buy or build a canopy for the tank. This depends on skill in woodworking and access to the right tools. This can be done relatively cheap, maybe $30 for wood, paint, fans, etc. The canopy would need to be about 5" tall and would almost surely need some fans (2 3" maybe?) to vent the heat. For a good example of a 10g DIY canopy with MH and PC supplementation, check out Dsparks thread on his canopy. Very informative. Another thought is that you might be able to gut the ballast/lamp out of the aqualight and install it in a DIY hood, whereas if you buy the powerquad the 28w PC isn't going to do you any good. I hope this helps a bit. Food for thought, at least. If the cash flow is an issue, maybe try to hold off a little bit longer so you can save up the difference to make the jump to MH. Link to comment
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