Pendant or luminaire lighting setups; what's out there?

[DubbieBoy]

So, I’ve been maintaining a 24” cube planted tank for several years in the corner of the living room. It’s been good and plant growth has been lush.

The lighting system I went with when I initially set it up was 3x55W CF lamps under AH Supply reflectors and these have been really good for punching light down through the extra depth. But this lighting arrangement isn’t particularly aesthetically pleasing and was only ever meant to be temporary. I’d like to consider an alternative lighting arrangement, like either a hanging pendant or an overtank luminaire setup and I’d welcome any advice. I thinking along the lines of a 6x24” T5s or a 150W MH, both of which seem to be unfathomably expensive for what they are! Because it’s in the living room, I’m a bit concerned a MH lamp might be too bright/glarey as it would have to be suspended further from the glass due to heat? In that sense, the 6x24” T5 HO pendant style might be the best bet.

Ideas, options, experiences and sources would be appreciated. I expect it would have to come from overseas as the minute anything like this enters NZ the price immediately triples.

Some pics of the corner cube in some of its incarnations -

[ryanjury]

Can't help with the lighting information, but the MH lights can be brought cheaply as ex commercial lighting on trademe and then the correct K bulbs brought from overseas sites.

[oO SKIPPY Oo]

If the lighting you have is working well why not consider building a hood in the same type of timber as the stand to cover the lights so you don't see them?

btw :nfs: tank

[FraserNZ]

Nice tank man!! Are those Narrow leaf java fern's you have in there?

I'm currently building a tank around the same size however a not quite as deep and will be running 4x24 T5's.

[Joe]

Beautiful tank! Simply gorgeous !drool:

[antwan]

I'd say go with the halide, and do what Ryan says, get an ex-commercial fititng. They are a ton cheaper than aquarium-made ones. With the money you save you could perhaps build a hood to keep the halide in? If you don't want a hood you can have the halide pretty low anyway because you'd have good air flow around it. You get the cool ripple effect with halides too. Bulbs are about $15-20 NZ from overseas so I think it's much more cost effective over T5's.

[Zev]

But... but... where is the cat going to sleep?

[DubbieBoy]

Thought I’d update this thread now that I’ve arrived at a decision (forced by the failure of one of my existing ballasts which knocked out two of my compact flouros, leaving just one 55w bulb; plant performance quickly suffered). I wanted to replace the failed ballast with something a little more aesthetic than what I had been using but still baulked at the exaggerated prices of overtank luminaries such as the Arcadia or Giesseman units. There are cheap(er) T5 luminaires available from the far east but quality (safety?) can be an issue. I didn’t want to go MH as I need a stout cover glass to prevent the cat from treating the tank as a buffet. Then I stumbled across the iQuatics site recently http://www.iquaticsonline.co.uk/; these seem to be relatively new players and by comparison are quite competitively priced - the AquaLumi ticked all the right boxes… Heavy duty anodised aluminium luminaire, 6 x 24W T5HO bulbs (with 2 or 4 independently switched), cool running with fan assisted cooling of the electronics etc… Nice. So I enquired about international shipping and, as it happens, yesterday I received their first overseas consignment ;-)

It’s a very solidly put together unit and I’m really pleased with it…

Here are some preliminary pics, I’ll update when I have it in situ.

[alanmin4304]

That will punch out some serious light. Love the earthquake proofing on the tank.

[F15hguy]

wow, pics of it running??? or is it too bright for your camera

[DubbieBoy]

I'll get pics up, it is bright 8) ... but I don't think massively more intense than the 3 x 55W power compacts I was already running. Hard to say really.

Here's two of six lamps lit, I went for a 50:50 mix of their 'tropical' bulb and 10000k reef white tubes. The tropical bulbs are supposed to be about 7500k but have a distinctly pink hue. Together the colour rendition is quite nice.

[Ira]

I'll get pics up, it is bright 8) ... but I don't think massively more intense than the 3 x 55W power compacts I was already running. Hard to say really.

I'd be surprised if a 144 watt fixture was massively brighter than a 165. Small differences in efficiency and reflectors will make a little difference, but color temps will make a huge difference.