Lighting a new tank

[Anonymous]

I am planning on upgrading my tank to a 93G Cube. 30x30x24

Power consumption is an issue and I am trying to keep it down

I am debating on these lights.

250W MH HQI - Lumenarc type pendant

6 x 24W T5 light fixture (Maybe 8 of I can squeeze it)

LED's of some sort. I did look at the Aqua Illuminations LED's but they are very expensive. I have thought about DIY but I do not know much about them.

Even though are the LED's going to give much more light than the other 2 mentioned per wattage? 250W MH, 192W T5, 144W of LED's ( 2 Aqua illuminations). there is a 100W difference but is it worth the $700 more for LED's?

 

[Anonymous]

Yes it is worth it. The AIs will blow the T5s out of the water and will even hammer the PAR of the 250 watt MH(with 40* optics). With the 70* optics 2 will still have more PAR then the 250 watt MH. The amount of heat they use is slight and will cut out the need for chillers or fans for evaporative cooling. Also that 100watt every 10 hours is one KWH. Those KWH's will add up over the year for a few bucks(depending on your rates). Also, you will not need to replace bulbs anymore(for years) and that will save you for years to come. All these things add up and will eat the initial cost in about 2-3 years.

 

[Anonymous]

Yes it is worth it. The AIs will blow the T5s out of the water and will even hammer the PAR of the 250 watt MH(with 40* optics). With the 70* optics 2 will still have more PAR then the 250 watt MH. The amount of heat they use is slight and will cut out the need for chillers or fans for evaporative cooling. Also that 100watt every 10 hours is one KWH. Those KWH's will add up over the year for a few bucks(depending on your rates). Also, you will not need to replace bulbs anymore(for years) and that will save you for years to come. All these things add up and will eat the initial cost in about 2-3 years.

+1 on all counts. With the tank footprint you're planning a pair of AI modules would be exactly what I would do. Besides the advantages outlined above, you also get complete control over the color temp of the bulbs, dimming ability, and an incredibly versatile set of functions you can take advantage of if you add a controller to the set up down the road. Those things can mimic everything from transitory cloud cover to tropical thunderstorms.

Just hang them, don't use their tank mounting rail kit (which is entirely too ugly).

 

[Anonymous]

I did over look the point that AIs are controllable in 1% increments, blue to white. You can turn the unit from a 10K light to a 20K at any moment. A MH you would need to change the bulbs everytime you want a different color. I do not know how many times I bought a bulb and did not like the bulb's color.

 

[Anonymous]

If the AIs are too expensive (and they're very pricey), it might be worth looking into Maxspect LEDs, which are considerably cheaper (if without some of the fancy functionality of the AIs).