First time lighting shopper needs help

H

housecao

hey guys,
reading this forum has helped me a lot in my attempt at setting up a saltwater aquarium. I kept a freshwater tank for 5 or 6 years in before college and haven't been in the hobby until now. thought I'd challenge myself.

So I have a 42 gallon hex tank with about 35 lbs of live rock(waiting to get more money for another 15 or 20 lbs when I can afford it). My situation has me leaving my tank for about two months while I'll be in Dallas for an internship and I didn't want to burden my roommate with much more than the daily topoff and general maintanance of the tank. Therefore I wanted to maybe get a few frags of corals that are mostly photosynthetic for the tank so that they can begin to grow during the summer.

I've been looking at lights and my tank has a 21" diameter. I've looked at the 24 hour systems from Satellite and Orbits and have no idea if these are any good. I like the idea of the lights automatically fading in and out. what do you guys know about these type lighting? also, because of the diameter of the tank, the 20" size is the closest I can find but the most I can find is 80W. If I go with a 24" I can get a 130W which is about the amount of wattage I believe because of the hex tank being so tall.
The first corals I want to start with is a metallic green star polyp. I know it spreads like crazy so if any of you can cut me a piece of it, I'd be greatly appreciative. I am a college student and could use anything to help start my tank faster. Otherwise, I'd be paying 30 dollars a frag or so and adding about one per semester.

Thanks in advance
 
Here is the light that would work nicely over that tank. It isn't cheap, but it will do the job. I just bought a couple myself from a club member.

http://www.hellolights.com/ocli15hqiame.html

It is 150w of MH lighting, and you can suspend them from cables. The link shows them on sale but out of stock. You might call to see if more are coming in. The ones I got came with 14,000K lights (some-what bluish in hue), but I bought some used 10,000K bulbs from another member.

Here are more pictures of what I got:
http://melevsreef.com/pics/06/04/150w_setup.jpg
http://melevsreef.com/pics/06/04/150w_bulb.jpg
http://melevsreef.com/pics/06/04/150w_off.jpg
http://melevsreef.com/pics/06/04/150w_on.jpg
http://melevsreef.com/pics/06/04/150w_label.jpg

We have a lot of stuff that sells in the forums and you can save money if you don't mind used.
 
Heres another. I run these lights. They had problems when they first came out, but these new ones are great for the money.
http://www.aquatraders.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=212
 
so if I go one of these routes, do I do away with the hood I have now and just get a piece of plexiglass or something to prevent fish from committing suicide? I am guessing the satellite or orbit brands are no good. how long do these bulbs last and how much/how easy are replacement bulbs to find?

Thanks for answering
 
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