new guy. please help with lighting upgrade

[ahullsb]

I have a 55 gallon reef tank. I need to upgrade my current lighting system (a coralife 4/65 pc.) I want to buy a light if possible that i could move with me to a bigger tank should I decide to upgrade. I don't know what to get. I have been interested in the outer orbit mh/t5 setup with moonlights, but I don't know there reputation, or whether there is a better setup for the money. Please help! Oh and I really do like the looks of mh's in the water, so I would prefer not to go with just t5's, but I will listen to good arguments! Thanks

 

[corallimorph]

I hope your not going to be listening to ANY "arguments"on this forum....forums are for idea exchange..not arguing.
You have 48" to light and you want to keep things "open" for future expansion/upgrade.
I offer this idea ..why not think in 2' sections and buy two smaller(24")
outer orbits...this way....lets say you upgrade to a 125 all-glass,you could just buy one more of those 24"units and perhaps a couple of vho fluorescents or something like that(just one example)-Dave

 

[Woodstock]

You could get a plug/play MH fixture which could be used on future 4' tanks. I have one.. it is a 4' Hamilton 2 x 250 watt MH with 2 x 96 watt PC.

Or... you couldl get 2 HQI pendents now and easily add more later for a longer tank. You could also mount those in a canopy if you needed to.

 

[ahullsb]

Do you think that 2 250's would be overkill for a 55? I would like to upgrade to a bigger tank, but it might not be for a year at least. And I don't know whether I would upgrade to a 75-90 or all the way to 120 etc. At that point it would be like starting over anyway as far as pumps, skimmer etc. right? I'm trying to see if 2 150's are enough, with the t5 supplements, or whether I should go 250 in something like hamilton or aquamedic or something! Any advice?

 

[2455coop]

I have a 70 DAS that is 48" and I also have thought about lighting in sections. I have 2 VHO's at 110 watts apiece that I have with actnics in the front and a double MH in the back with 2 150w 12,000K's. Depending on what kind of corals you have depends on the lighting. A good rule of thumb is between 5 and 10 watts of light per gallon. For my tank that equals about 7.4 watts per gallon. I have a white bubble, a green frogspawn, numerous mushrooms and flourescent orange yellow and green zoo's.

Also here is a web site that has really good prices on lighting equipment and supplies.

http://www.championlighting.com/home.php

Bill

 

[ahullsb]

thanks for the info bill. I appreciate it.

 

[lcstorc]

I have a 6ft long 125g tank and run a fixture w/3 150w mh 10,000k and 4 96w actinics. So far it has been great and I feel the 150s are enough for my setup. The thing you need to think about there is the depth of the tank. Mine is fairly shallow (I think 18in), so the 150s are good. If I were to upgrade to a deeper tank I would have to reconsider.
So, buy the halides you will need for the deepest tank you are considering and you should be set.
Personally I like the idea of 2 24in fixtures as well. Then if you go from a 4 to a 6ft tank you can just buy one more and don't need to try to sell it etc.
BTW, PM me or post if you decide to see your current light. Hopefully I will be in the market for a 4ft pc fixture soon for the 55g seahorse tank I am hoping to get.

 

[ahullsb]

Thats good to know too. I'll let you know if I sell the coralife fixture. I understand the 2 24 idea. But if I went to a 6 foot tank and 150's were a little low, couldn't i hang the 48 inch in the center and do pendants or something like that on the ends?