...and more on lights

R

rocklymber

Hey all-
We are getting closer and closer every day to setting up the 105 gal tank. Here's my question: Which lights? We are only keeping softies and lps, and eventually we want a clam or two, but as far as light requirements, that's it. The tank is 48" long and 28" deep. I know you get what you pay for, but I'm willing to compromise and eventually upgrade. I just want to get something that's easy, quick, and relatively inexpensive.
I've been all over the internet. The cheapest I've found was the odyssea lights at aquatraders. No one seems to like them, so who has alternate suggestions?
Thanks in advance! You guys have been a big help before; don't fail me now!
 
For a good set of starter lights, I used a corallife system with 192 watts of actinic, 192 watts of white light (also had 4 blue led moonlights.) This set did well on my 55 gallon with same livestock you mentioned. They are also relatively cheap too. On a 105, you may need to go with at least 350 watts minimum, but the corallife pc's are decently priced and are reliable. They make a wide range of setups so you should easily be able to find one to fit your needs. Im getting rid of my corallife I use now to upgrade for the same system but with metal halides to suit the needs for my new 120.
 
Clams love light so the best recommendation is to look at metal halides. With the depth of the tank the MHs will also be able to penetrate to the bottom better. And with MHs you can't go wrong since they will give you the most flexibility.

If you decide to go with something other than halides you will want to put the most light loving items (such as a clam) up high in the rockwork. People have been able to successfully keep clams and many SPS without MH but having them makes it that much easier and your livestock will be healthier.

To conserve cost you could look at doing a retrofit if you have a canopy. Retrofits are available for any kind of lighting you could want. I personally use hellolights.com for most of my lighting needs but there are other reputable dealers out there with decent prices.
 
I have a 105 full of softies a few LPS and 2 SPS. I one day would like to upgrade to MH but until then here is what I am doing. I have an ICECAP 660 Electronic Ballast running 4 - 4 foot Fluorescent Lamps, 2 - 6500K and 2 Actinic. With the tank being 18" front to back these fit well. I even have 2 extra 4 foot 6500Ks running on a Home Depot Ballast. Things are doing pretty well with this light set up. If and when I upgrad to MH I can just use the 660 to run my actinics.
 
Hey, thanks for the advice, guys! We're really wanting to go with halides because we love the look of them; they way the make the ripples show and the color as well.
I'm thinking we'll probably steer clear of the odyssea lights, because no one seems to have much nice to say about them.
We don't have a canopy; so we're considering the cost of either building a canopy, or buying one to put a retrofit into. Doing that adds up pretty quickly, and we'd end up spending almost as much as if we got an all in one fixture.
I have an opportunity to get a maristar fixture complete with 250 halides and t5s for less than $700. Good deal? Bad deal? What do you guys think about Maristar?
 
I've heard plenty of good things about the Maristar setups. I'm not current on the pricing though. Check out their pricing on the web to compare.
 
We ended up making an offer a good bit below the asking price on the Maristar and the seller accepted. :D

I think the fixture should be pretty much perfect for the 105. Going by watts per gallon it puts us at 6 wpg. Got MH for growth and T5s for color. Now we are going to have to build some kind of mount for it. We're in a rental house and can't mess with the ceiling.
 
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