thinking of a 5 hex

[YahooFishKeeper]

i have a 5 gallon hex that is currently unused. i was thinking of doing a corals only pico/nano. (not sure what it qualifys as) since it is tall, and a hexagon, it makes lighting funky. right now i have a 15 watt incandesent hood plus light. my target lighting is 7 WPG. could i set up a lamp or something? any ideas how i could pull this off?

 

[aresgod]

get a 70 W metal halide pendant, that would be sweet on that tank, and you could sps.

 

[TheFighterFish]

5 gallon hex=anywhere around 20 bucks for a full set up.

70 metal halide pendent=340 bucks.

Haha, how many hexes can you buy with that money? Although, I would have agree, that would be very sweet. If you pull that off Yahoo, cool........

 

[aresgod]

you should be able to get a 70 W halide very reasonably, I just looked on ebay, there was a retrofit kit for 130$ If you are handy you could do it even cheaper by buying balast and everything separatly.

 

[ram man]

i see alot of evaporation, but all the corals you could keep... so many sps! ive never seen alot of sps nano tanks before.

 

[Mushroomman]

I agree with the halide idea that would be sweet. For the price of a power compact system you might as well up it to halide.

thefighterfish- 340 bucks for a 70 watt halide? I bought my 250 watt pendant for 300 shipped.

 

[YahooFishKeeper]

well... im going to attempt to buy a metal halide. im not sure if i will ever have the money to buy it, but i sure will try to save it up. is there a way i could do a lamp form of the halide?

 

[OCCFan023]

coralife has some clip on tank lamp styles if you dont want a pendant. check out Hellolights.com they have nice setups and even nicer retrofits which would work well in this scenario to custom fit it

 

[Lotus]

I think your only choice here is halides. The CF systems that would give you the wattage are generally going to be larger than the tank itself, so you would have problems with the light not being concentrated into the tank.

 

[YahooFishKeeper]

i couldnt find a lamp type thing or the clip on tank halide you guys were talking about. any chance i could get a link?

 

[OCCFan023]

AQUALIGHT ADVANCED - HANG-ON TANK MOUNT

you dont even have to hang it on the tank rim you c9ould figure something out to hold it and hang over the tank.

 

[YahooFishKeeper]

thats pretty cool... but 150 watts over a 5 gallon tank is 30 WPG!!!

 

[Mushroomman]

Its not about the watts per gallon... its about giving corals an ample amount of light. 130 watts is 130 watts no matter what size tank (well minus depth obviously).

 

[YahooFishKeeper]

so you really dont think that is too much? it really isnt like its 3 feet deep or anything... it will be more watts over my 5 than over my 10!

 

[aresgod]

you can always adjust the height of the pendant above the tank, you are going to need to give it a solid 10" just so it does not affect temperature too much.

 

[TheFighterFish]

Basically, I just took out my Dr. Foster and Smith catalog and wrote down the first 75 W metal halide pendant I saw. It goes:

Metal Halide PAR Pendant Fixture
8" x 9.5" x 7" high
with 70 W ballast

I think its by IceCap Inc.
But yea, there are cheaper lights out there.

 

[OCCFan023]

and it would give you quality light if you upgraded in the future

 

[kevin4052002]

JBJ has a clip on 70w halide...around $140. Check eBay "JBJ K-2 Viper"

 

[YahooFishKeeper]

... i dont buy from ebay. is there any online stores that may carry them?

 

[Lorna]

Yes PremiumAquatics.com has them. The problem with the Viper is that they get very hot apparently....here is an option I am thinking of...

Aqualight 150 Watt HQI Tank Mount Pendant: Premium Aquatics