Lighting a 75

SCMurphy · Post by **SCMurphy** » Mon Apr 05, 2004 11:53 am

The Thought

Well, I've been rolling this one around for a bit, and I thought I'd toss it out to see what everyone else thought.

My Questions

The questions I ask are:
A) 160, 200, combo thereof, forget it 220 minimum?
B) Simple or WOW?
C) Are you thinking "What are you waiting for dude, its a good plan!"

Yes or No answers are permitted for C.

The Block

I'm getting ready to set up my 'new' 75 gallon tank and the lighting system is holding me back.

The Options

I don't want to use the two 96 watt PC's that are over the 30 gallon tanks I'm displacing, because of the expected uneven distribution of the light they would produce in a 75 gallon tank.

So I was looking at getting four 55 watt PC's but I don't want to sink $200 into the lights at this moment.

Then I was thinking: I have the spectral aluminum reflector material that I got from HelloLights on clearance (not ’the best’ but pretty good.) I have enough reflector material (both long and wide enough) to fit two 48 inch NO fixtures giving me 160 watts over the tank, with daylight bulbs for a grand total outlay needed of $50.00. If I wanted I could get a third fixture with one bulb and jump it up to 200 watts for another $20.

Going to Grainger, or the like, and getting the hardware and bulbs for a T-5 set up would be as much as the 4x55 watt PC option.

The 'WOW' Factor

SO, I was thinking I could put the fixtures on three separate timers. I'd put the two bulb fixtures on each for 9 hours starting 2 hours apart,(one on at 8 the other on at 10) with the center single bulb unit on for 3 hours in the middle of the day. It'd be 80 watts for 2 hours, 160 watts for 2 hours, 200 watts for 3, 160 watts for 2, and 80 watts for 2 hours. I doubt there is a biological benefit to this but the 'WOW' factor is fun sometimes.

Add another $30 to do the fancy wiring and timers.

The K.I.S.S. Factor

I'm having fun at this point with the idea. The wiring would be much simpler to just set up for one set of lights going to a single timer, and less costly.

But, DIY is not just for simple it is also for making what you can't buy for a reasonable cost.

Extra Information

Answers to questions you might pose:
soil substrate under, chick grit in the back and moon sand in the front
crypts that are too tall for my 30's and anubius on drift wood, lots of drift wood <img border="0" src="smileys/smiley2.gif" border="0">
possibly stem plants but only if they like this light level
CO2
Fish: Whatever I get, I'm gonna have them for the next 5 or 6 years, as my fish just don't seem to die much once they settle in.

SO:

The Fitchfamily calculator says 168 watts for a 75.

You know this will be the typical Sean set up, only laid out nicely to start with so it can grow into a jungle. <img border="0" src="smileys/smiley2.gif" border="0">

Side benefits:

By keeping the 96 watt PC out of this mix I can rack up the 30's and have 'high light' grow out tanks.

We have too much dead air on the forum and this might generate conversation.

Ghazanfar Ghori · Post by **Ghazanfar Ghori** » Mon Apr 05, 2004 12:26 pm

You really want my advice? Go for a Coralife 48" 4x65W
Aqualight fixture. Comes with 6700K bulbs. Around $170
on Ebay (new).
Has two seperate power cords and fans to cool the ballast.

That will light that tank up nicely! Get some nice
growth out of those stem plants.

The good:
Easier and much more light.
You can buy legs for the coralife fixture for 7-8 bucks
and keep it open top. Looks SO much better.

The bad:
You'll spend more.
No long term experience with the Aqualights.
I've had a few running for 3-4 months now with no
problems.

SCMurphy · Post by **SCMurphy** » Mon Apr 05, 2004 12:45 pm

[QUOTE=Ghazanfar Ghori] You really want my advice? Go for a Coralife 48" 4x65W Aqualight fixture. Comes with 6700K bulbs. Around $170 on Ebay (new). Has two seperate power cords and fans to cool the ballast.
[/QUOTE]

Thanks but 65 watt bulbs are not among the options to be considered:
I don't want an open top tank. Retro fit is the goal.
I'd prefer to keep this under $100.
I don't want 3.5 watts per gallon, stems might be an accent but not the 'scape.

Ben Belton · Post by **Ben Belton** » Mon Apr 05, 2004 4:01 pm

I was going to comment that I have 2 of the fixtures Ghazanfar mentioned (8 x 55 watts) on my 75 and I love it.

From your reply I don't think it comes anywhere close to your needs or desires though <img border="0" src="smileys/smiley1.gif" border="0">

Oh well,
Ben<edited><editID>Ben Belton</editID><editDate>38082.8300578704</editDate></edited>

Ghazanfar Ghori · Post by **Ghazanfar Ghori** » Mon Apr 05, 2004 4:15 pm

You're running 440Watts on a 75? Do you dose sunscreen?

Ben Belton · Post by **Ben Belton** » Mon Apr 05, 2004 7:56 pm

No way!!! It's great.

The light on my 40 is more intense even though there are fewer watts per gallon.

SCMurphy · Post by **SCMurphy** » Mon Apr 05, 2004 8:55 pm

[QUOTE=Ben Belton] I was going to comment that I have 2 of the fixtures Ghazanfar mentioned (8 x 55 watts) on my 75 and I love it.

From your reply I don't think it comes anywhere close to your needs or desires though <img border="0" src="smileys/smiley1.gif" border="0">

Oh well,
Ben[/QUOTE]

I'm trying to imagine fitting 8 55 watt bulbs over a 75. <img border="0" src="smileys/smiley16.gif" border="0">

Ben Belton · Post by **Ben Belton** » Mon Apr 05, 2004 9:12 pm

I actually have a few inches to spare.

Archie · Post by **Archie** » Mon Apr 05, 2004 11:31 pm

I have that Coralife 4X65 on my 75. It's awesome.

Sean- have you thought about trying ODNO (with overdriven T8s)?

SCMurphy · Post by **SCMurphy** » Tue Apr 06, 2004 7:31 am

[QUOTE=Archie]
Sean- have you thought about trying ODNO (with overdriven T8s)?
[/QUOTE]

Yes, I considered those and NO or OD T-5's, looked up the Grainger prices and everything for the lamps and balasts and endcaps ect... We have a Grainger in Gaithersburg and I have a Sales and Use Tax license.

The problem is finding T-8's of a high enough color temp or even bulbs that are 40 watts to start with. Evey bulb I have found that is T-8 is at best 'coolwhite' (uh warmwhite is 4100K and coolwhite is 5000K right?) OD'ing a 32 watt 5000K bulb isn't a vast improvement over a NO 40 watt 6500K bulb. I also have to include the cost of two electronic balasts set up to run four bulbs to have enough leads to do 2x OD.

What do you guys think of MY ideas? Avoiding them doesn't help me.

Lighting a 75

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