New Lights or add Supplimental?

[goisles1]

Need Advice...

Next month (hopefully) the wife and I will start a large home renovation project where we will pretty much redo the entire first floor of the house. My 45 Gallon Reef Tank located in the living room will have to go. Part of the renovation will be to prepare a space for a larger future display tank.

To prepare for this, I took advantage of the Petco $1 per gal sale and purchased a 55 for a basement office tank and a 40B for the future Sump. I will put this tank In the wall of my office with a small fishroom behind it for the sump and all the toys.

So to the point of this post...:

as I will be going from a 3ft tank to a 4ft tank in my office, Will I will need to address my lighting?

I currently have the Nova Extreme Pro made by Current over my Tank. This is a 36inch fixture with 6 T5 Bulbs. If I center this over the 55, I will have approx 6 inches on each side without direct lighting overhead.

I think I have 3 options:

1 - Leave the T5 fixture alone over the 55

2 - LEave the T5 but add supplimental Lighting (DIY LED perhaps)

3 - Replace the entire fixture with LED

Would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Thanks,
Rob

 

[jackson6745]

Sounds like you want to go with leds since a 4ft t5 fixture is not an option
On a standard 55g a 48" t5 fixture would be your best option IMO. You would only need a 4 bulb unit.

 

[goisles1]

Sounds like you want to go with leds since a 4ft t5 fixture is not an option
On a standard 55g a 48" t5 fixture would be your best option IMO. You would only need a 4 bulb unit.

Well.. I also Own a controller that has dimming capabilites.. So I like the thought of playing with that side of it. But.. I can always wait for the LEDs on the future living room tank.

 

[thirty6]

What are you planning to do with tank? Nice 48" lights in marketplace lately

 

[goisles1]

What are you planning to do with tank? Nice 48" lights in marketplace lately

No SPS.. all LPS and Softies

 

[ChrisB]

I used buildmyled.com super actinic reef strip for supplemental lighting.

 

[skiwez]

I think you should stay with the lighting you have, depending how you scape the tank, you generally won't have rock and corals all the way against the glass on both ends.

Save the money and buy the LED's for the other tank you mentioned.

just my 2 cents

 

[ctcorals]

i will say Leave the T5HO 4 BULB fixture alone over the 55GL.

 

[goisles1]

i will say Leave the T5HO 4 BULB fixture alone over the 55GL.

OK.. I think it makes sense.. I'll mount the T5 fixture over the tank and if it needs more I'll go from there!

Thanks