Help Me Pick a Light Fixture - Crazy option w/ Poll

[VR28man]

Apologies for the duplicate thread, forgot my poll!

Follow on to my other post mentally thinking out MH or MH+t5 combos.

Another tank design I'm considering is a reef ready 54gallon corner. (triangular shape, 27 inch sides, 23 inches deep. Design can be seen in post 12 here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/54-corner-lights.514038/ thanks to @BGrand ).

I'm sort of thinking this design is interesting but impractical. First, I'll have to put the sump way in the back of the stand.

Second, and the point of this post, the dimensions make lighting it tricky.

From an aquascaping standpoint, the only thing that makes sense is that most of your LR be towards the back. This is the rockwork I liked the best; I'd populated it with a few large acros.
https://www.thereeftank.com/forums/f193/54-corner-bow-ikaria-95400-6.html?styleid=18


Looking at the measurements from @BGrand , I think that it could just barely take one of the big MH pendants, going a again with a new Hamilton this would be the 20x20 pendant. It would cover most of the area of the tank, with the bulbs somewhere in the middle and the reflector covering most of the tank. BUT, in this case, most of my SPS would be in the mid-back of the tank, and I'm not sure that the placement of the light over the middle is best for them.

An alternative would be a 24" T5 placed over, again, the middle of the tank (or possibly cutting the triangle in half). This has similar problems.

A third alternative would be a 2-3 small MH pendants (sticking with Hamilton, say 12x11x2.5 inch Bimini Suns or 15x11x5 Bali suns) spread strategically to cover most of the tank. Or, probably more logical, one such MH covering the back of the tank where the acros are, and then maybe just 1-2 black box type LEDs covering the relatively empty front half of the tank.

Again, maybe this is a tank configuration that's more interesting than practical.

 

[Hitman]

Single MH and 2-4 T5’s would be my suggestion

 

[VR28man]

I saw a (non-reef ready) model in Petsmart tonight, and brought my measuring tape to see how I might place @ATI North America sunpower T5 fixtures or the various Hamilton MH pendants.

My conclusions:

It can take one 24" 6 bulb sunpower fixture; BUT this would have to be placed towards the front 1/2-2/3 of the tank because there is insufficient room at the back.. 36" fixtures, or 8 bulb fixtures, are no-gos.

It can take one Hamilton pendant. It unfortunately can't take the 20x20 Cozumel sun. My recommendation would be for one 16x12 inch Bali sun put as far towards the back as possible (it should cover most of an aquascape that is back-heavy), and then maybe some LEDs (or even a 24 inch coralife T5 fixture with ATI bulbs) at the front for supplemental lighting, assuming that your front is mostly clear.

Honestly, this kind of a tank has a very set scaping option (high stack of stuff in back, less so up front, and stuff up front can't grow too big). So I'd think carefully before jumping into this. Also note that the 16x12 inch Bali sun would cover the lion's share of the (coral) usable area, so there isn't a huge amount of area for stuff; if you want to stack big corals I'd suggest a conventional tank design.

 

[cracker]

T5's for me !

 

[Wildblue4]

Single MH and 2-4 T5’s would be my suggestion

Hey Hitman. I’m building a 250 and my lights for my 125 are for 72” long tank instead of 60”. I would like LED and T5 combo. Looks like that’s what you are running. My question is did you make yours home made or buy a complete unit?
Can you point me in the direction where you got yours?

Thanks.

 

[jda]

They 20x20 pendant will cover 36x36 very well. It will work for your dimensions.

 

[VR28man]

They 20x20 pendant will cover 36x36 very well. It will work for your dimensions.

Thanks, but the dimensions of the 54 corner are 39 (really more around 30-36 due to the curve) of the triangle, 27 for each side of the triangle, and 23 deep. One would think that the 20x20 pendant would work, but it the pendant covers well over the edge of the tank due to the geometry of the triangle. (if one cared about such a thing)

@Steven Drake : I'm not @Hitman nor do I have a tank like that. But if it were me, I might get a 60", 8 bulb ATI sunpower, and then supplement it with something like the reefbrite lumilite pro. Or if I wanted to do more DIY work, I might get 3-4 dual T5 retrofit kits like Hamilton's Aruba Sun, and intersperse them with thin LED strips like the lumilite pro or Hamliton's Kona Sun.