Lighting suggestions

volupte79 · Dec 13, 2012

Hey y'all,

I'm looking for lighting suggestions please. I have a 24 gallon nano cube that is open top that I have been running a 150 MH clamp on Viper on it. It was working well and I like the MH look. Long story short but it looks like my light fixture has died :rip: and I will need to either replace it or look at replacing the entire set up, whichever is cheaper. The way my tank is set up I don't think I can hang a pendant above it (those of you that came to my house for a meeting a couple of years ago will remember). Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can light this tank? My corals have been without light for about 1.5 months now and they are not looking happy! :frown:

Bluesaltwater87 · Dec 13, 2012

Hew bud. Ok i dont have a lot of Experience in nano cubes. i do have a nano system. I DIY my LED lighting and i find it cheaper in the long run. depending on how much it will be for the light system and bulb can tell you if it will be worth it. along with the electric bill also :sad:. when i was running my system with MH I had to buy bulbs every 4 mouths and my electric bill was over 400 a month. so in one year i was paying well over 5k for bills and bulbs alone. so i whent to LEDs and they only cost me 35 bucks to run in a month. So if i was in your spot i would study up on LEDs from you tube and the net and go on Ebay and get all the stuff you will need and start making your own LEDs:xd:. you save money witch means more corals for your tank :bigsmile:. sorry it was long winded but i wanted to explane it.

P.S. sorry for the spelling:bigsmile:

Rob.D · Dec 13, 2012

As far as I know a fixture will not go bad, unless a wire has come loose. The ballast is probably to blame. What's the width of the tank?

SLUF681 · Dec 13, 2012

Rob, I put a new ballast/capacitor/ignitor in for her and no change. New bulb also. I'm stumped on the thing.

SLUF681 · Dec 13, 2012

@Bluesaltwater - Electricity rates here in Knoxville, TN run us just under 9.5 cents per kw/hr. I run 2 250 watt halides 10 hours each day.
Using 10 cents per kw/hr for easy math it works out as follows for us:
500w/hr for 2 hours = 1 kw/hr
I use 5 kw/hr per day, 30 days per month.
That's 50 cents per day, or $15/month. $180/yr.

I also don't have to run a heater on my 120 gallon tank. I keep my house at 68* and my tank fluctuates from 76 in the am to 79 when the lights go off.

Do you have any idea what your power rates are? Seems REALLY expensive to me...

volupte79 · Dec 15, 2012

Thanks guys.

Rob,
The tank is 18" wide. Yeah, new ballast components so it shouldn't be the ballast. New bulb that fires up fine at the store. No idea why all of a sudden my fixture just plain won't work. Maybe a loose wire but no idea why all of a sudden a wire would go loose?

Bluesaltwater,
Really the last thing I want to do is to buy pieces and parts and try to build a light. That is not my area of expertise and watching no amount of youtube videos is going to help me. I know it seems easy to people who know about electronics but to me it is all Greek!

I need a plug and play light system. I like the MH look. I ran one 150 watt bulb and I don't think it really added to my power bill much at all considering everything else going on around here.

I don't think I really have the inclination to go over to leds plus I need this to be as cost effective as possible. I just graduated today and whats left of my student loans is going to have to carry me until I start getting paid from my new job in January.

Spongie · Dec 16, 2012

I have an almost all white Marineland LED (seriously only has 3 blue) that might probably fit, I will measure it when I get home. It has legs but if it is 24" long probably won't fir on the 18" tank. It isn't pretty, but it might keep your stuff alive until you find something more permanent. I'll pm you tonight.

Bluesaltwater87 · Dec 17, 2012

SLUF681 said:
@Bluesaltwater - Electricity rates here in Knoxville, TN run us just under 9.5 cents per kw/hr. I run 2 250 watt halides 10 hours each day.
Using 10 cents per kw/hr for easy math it works out as follows for us:
500w/hr for 2 hours = 1 kw/hr
I use 5 kw/hr per day, 30 days per month.
That's 50 cents per day, or $15/month. $180/yr.

I also don't have to run a heater on my 120 gallon tank. I keep my house at 68* and my tank fluctuates from 76 in the am to 79 when the lights go off.

Do you have any idea what your power rates are? Seems REALLY expensive to me...

they were expensive. idk what it was back than it was so long ago. I live in california and the power is always high out here.

SLUF681 · Dec 17, 2012

Bluesaltwater87 said:
they were expensive. idk what it was back than it was so long ago. I live in california and the power is always high out here.

I looked it up on the Internet and according to what I found on your power company's website you can use that formula I used and figure your power bill due to the aquarium. Your current power price per kw/hr is very close to ours. Ours is 9.387 cents per kw/hr and yours was 9.4 cents per kw/hr. Those are current prices. What size tank do you have? What lighting were you using? What LEDs are you running now?

Bluesaltwater87 · Dec 17, 2012

SLUF681 said:
I looked it up on the Internet and according to what I found on your power company's website you can use that formula I used and figure your power bill due to the aquarium. Your current power price per kw/hr is very close to ours. Ours is 9.387 cents per kw/hr and yours was 9.4 cents per kw/hr. Those are current prices. What size tank do you have? What lighting were you using? What LEDs are you running now?

I am running a 150 gallon main tank with a 55 gallon refug and another tanks as well. back than i was running 10 MH 250 watt to 400 watt. along with 14 atinic t-5 bulbs. now i DIY my lighting so i got my LEDs and most of my stuff from ebay. most of it came from china.
with all of my tanks i run the same stuff. form 5-10 watt LEDs. so currently i have 7 tanks that have leds not all are reefs but i am running about 800 watts of leds on my main display with the refug. and with the others witch is about another 200 watts so about 1000 watts in lighting. but my house uses solar energy so i dont pay electric bills anymore. they pay me :bigsmile:. but i hope this answers your question

SLUF681 · Dec 18, 2012

Holy crap! 800 watts of LEDs on a 150? Does the water boil or just explode when you crank them up? Isn't that a little overkill for a 150?

Esage · Dec 18, 2012

I have a JBJ 54watt led unibody on my Solana, so far I'm really pleased with it. It would fit your tank and it clamps on.

volupte79 · Dec 18, 2012

Thanks Esage but the led unit is $350 which is pretty pricy and I really like the look of MHs over leds. I'll keep it in mind though!

Bluesaltwater87 · Dec 19, 2012

LOL no not on just one tank it is the total for ALL of my tanks. they all use LEDs lol.
i have a lot of tanks running in my house.
one in the bathroom and bed room
one in the guest bathroom
my main display tank is in the front room that has the 150 main, 55 gal hex and a 55 gal refug.
one in my office
and one in the kitchen.
and my 2 45 gallon flat frag tanks
all use 800 watts of LED POWER.
now that i no longer pay for a power bill my wife said i can have as many as i want as long as we dont have to pay a bill.

OurReef · Dec 19, 2012

To the op, where there is a will there is a way, could you build a hanger that screws to the back part of the stand? Paint it to match the walls and maybe smooth the edges to blend it in so it wouldn't be overly visible. You said money was tight and the ballast still works correct? You might bring your full lighting set up to your local fs and check everything there. I had to figure out how to hang 3 halides and 4 t5s over my tank, you can make it work.

Side note, I run 1600+ watts on my 180.

Bluesaltwater87 · Dec 20, 2012

OurReef said:
Side note, I run 1600+ watts on my 180.

nice. on my mine im running 650 watts on my 150.

volupte79 · Dec 20, 2012

Giant thanks to Spongie who loaned me a led set up until I can figure out what I am going to do long term. It fits the tank perfectly and while not the most attractive combo of lights

it works great. Also thanks to SLUF681 for replacing all the parts in my ballast!! It is so nice when we can help each other out!!!

I am continuing my quest of figuring out what to do to for a light long term. Thanks everyone for the suggestions! Keep them coming if you think of anything.

Rob.D · Dec 20, 2012

volupte79 said:
Giant thanks to Spongie who loaned me a led set up until I can figure out what I am going to do long term. It fits the tank perfectly and while not the most attractive combo of lights it works great. Also thanks to SLUF681 for replacing all the parts in my ballast!! It is so nice when we can help each other out!!!

I am continuing my quest of figuring out what to do to for a light long term. Thanks everyone for the suggestions! Keep them coming if you think of anything.

They are a couple of great guys!

Would you be willing to build a hood or type of mounting bracket that could be bolted from the back of the stand?

SLUF681 · Dec 20, 2012

No problem! I'm just bummed it didn't work. If you have it off the tank now, perhaps I could get the entire unit and give it another shot?

Thanks Rob!