I agree that PC's are going to be the cheapest lighting system for soft corals. Your best bet will be to build a canopy and retro fit PC bulbs into it. As far as Kelvin rating, go with 2 10K's and 2 Actinic's. That should do the trick for softies.
cheapest lighting for soft corals in 20g long?
- Thread starter neonmadness
- Start date
so would the 30" 130w pc fixture with one 65w daylight and one 65w actinic be the right choice? And would a T5 HO fixture be better or worse?
Soooooo.... After reading this thread http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1050273 and seeing the awesome variety of corals this dude had in a 20 long with 4x24w T5 bulbs and seeing as i can get a 4 bulb t5 fixture on aquatraders for 70 bucks which seems too good to be true im going to go with that, someone please tell me if it is too good to be true because being able to keep softies and some stonys with a $70 lighting fixture seems unreal to me
You should be able to keep demanding corals with 4 t5 lamps on a 20 gallon.neonmadness;4288516; said:
Ok, If T-5's are in your budget then I would get them. Here's the thing with T-5's. First you need to use quality individual parabolic reflectors. They are the key to using T-5's. Second is the ballast. You can use an Icecap 660 to overdrive 4 24" bulbs or a triad or equivalent to run 4 24" bulbs normally driven. The overdriving will help if you want to push the light intensity deeper into an aquarium. A regular T-5 HO kit with parabolic reflectors will allow you to have any coral you want. Now the coral choice is a different story. Some soft corals will have to be put in a shady spot or they will not do good. You will just have to be a bit careful with your coral placement, If you use T-5's.
sprayin70;4290732; said:
Given that he is doing four t5s on a 20 long, I dont think he is going to have to worry about "dark spots" or depth issues since his tank isnt deeper then 24 inches.
But good info none the less.
sprayin70;4290732; said:
Great info, im going to go with the fishneedit 4 bulb t5ho fixture because its affordable, i know ice caps are pretty pricey will i be ok without them? the tank is only 12 or 13" deep
Fish need it makes a good, affordable light fixture.neonmadness;4291078; said:
Even the cheap t5 fixture that you listed earlier by oddysea (or whatever) has been getting good reviews. Cheap products will only cause you to have to replace them later on, and maybe have a house fire...
I think either one of the fixtures you have listed so far will work for you. Generally speaking, the most important thing is the spectrum and qaulity of bulb...
neonmadness;4291078; said:
Do you need to have a all in one fixture? If your willing to build a canopy reefgeek.com sells a nice normally driven T-5 retrofit kit for a great price. I have used the 6x54watt version and it worked great on a standard 75.
T-5's are great just make sure your coral choice will work with the new lighting. T-5's put out allot of par. Actually my 6x54watt kit put out the same par as 2x250 watt MH @ 18" of water. The MH was in a luminarc reflectors. A shallow tank and T-5's will rock some corals. haha
For a 4x24watt kit, I would use 2-ATI BluePlus, 1-ATI AquaBlueSpecial, 1-FigiPurple.
http://www.reefgeek.com/lighting/T5...tput_Retrofit_Kit_w!_Bulbs_by_Sunlight_Supply
wow those lights on reef geek look great but unfortunately out of my budget. Id totally build a canopy, but the cheapest retrofit kit ive seen costs twice as much as the fishneedit fixture which is only $100. I was originally going to go for the odyssea at $70 but the fishneedit seems to be a safer choice as far as reliability goessprayin70;4291174; said:
