With anenomies your going to need light requirements, aka expensive lights.
Or you can drop the idea and save a lot of money
Or you can drop the idea and save a lot of money
New lighting for new setup
- Thread starter cancore
- Start date
well not always. My T5 setup for my 120 didnt cost more then 500 bucks, and thats a lot more lighting then you will need. My setup is 8 T5HO bulbs all with individual reflectors, which is the make or break factor for T5's. I am running 2 IceCap IC660 ballast which instead of running the average 4 bulbs at 52 watts or whatever it is, they are over driven to about 85 watts. The bulbs can handle this but it does lessen the life on the bulb which means they need to be replaced almost 18% sooner then normal. Not a huge number but enough to make a difference in a SPS tank. For your set up I would do some shopping on several websites and find the set up that's best for your needs. I would go at minimum 4 T5 HO bulbs. The reason I would like to see you do a retro kit is because most fixtures will only have modular reflectors, which are bent to be "individual" but not as good as ones made for retro kits so I think its a waste of money. Retro kits will be more efficient at transferring light into the tank, which means you can get equal results with less bulbs because the PAR is higher. The higher the PAR the more versatile your lighting will be for all corals, including SPS.
well a lot less then it sounds. I thought my setup was going to be hard to figure out because i basically wanted 1 ballast to run every other bulb, so the wiring was a bit tricking, in making sure you didnt cross ends, things like that. A retro kit will have a ballast, all the needed endcaps, the wiring, and good kits will also include the individual reflectors. Again for T5's you need those reflectors or you are losing a lot of light. IceCap makes the best reflectors for the money IMHO. The instructions are very easy to follow, and since you'd only be doing 4 bulbs, it will be very straight forward. Depth of the tank is an important factor, but trust me, my 120 is 24 deep and I grow SPS on the bottom. I have plenty of light to go around lol. Of course you will need a hood to put this all in lol, so if you were to purchase or build one, you'd want to make sure the Inside length is long enough to fit the bulbs and endcaps in. Most kits will have this already sized in so, 49 inches inside should give you plenty to work with.
