I'm with Anthony (sorry man, I can't call you Seahorse with a straight face :razz:). I say either replace your whole lighting with LED (which you might be able to do for $40 or so... I show you in a minute) and go with halides. With everyone and their dog going to LEDs these days there are some mean deals to be had for halides. A 24" fixture can do a 30" tank, though it'll be a little dim at the edges (PM BlazingArrow to see his wicked 30" tank. He's using my old 24" 150W Coralife fixture) or get a pair of pendants. I bet you could do it for about $100 to $120.

The whole lighting thing is a minor detail. I could tell you how to make a sexy light hanging kit that would attach to your stand for less than $20.

Now... for LEDs. Let me first direct you to exhibit A: Aquastyles. You could get everything you need for a 24 LED set up for about $85 + shipping.

Exhibit B: Pinhead's advice on cheap LED builds. I'm going this route for a cheap retrofit myself. The most expensive thing would be the heatsink and you can find some cheap ones if you look around. HeatsinkUSA is pretty good.

Thanks Steve (I am hoping that's your name :D).

I, once more, got confused about what to do with my light, a phobia that I always suffer :sad:

With my 62W T5HO, I am getting coral growth and I won't complain that I am lacking light, but its just that, I know that the corals can do better. I have a montipora cap around 1/3 up the tank and its growing nicely. But I feel like the tank can use better lighting. I can easily grab the same fixture for like $50 but the problem is the upkeep of T5HO bulbs.

I would definitely do metal halide if I can mount them without drilling but halides get me worried about heating up the water. Plus with the small rectangular pedants, I think I need two which, again, would add up the upkeep.

That's why I wanted to go with LED. But looks like I won't be able to because most of the led DIY is hanging type and getting 30" heat sink would be expensive for multiple rows. But I have found 30" heat sink that can fit single row LEDs for $20.

Type of heatsink & whether a fan is required largely depends on the type of LED you choose. With the commonly used 3 watt star LEDs most folks are using fairly solid chunks of aluminum as heatsinks with no fan, although I've seen the odd build with lighter aluminum rails. It boils down to how comfortable you are running the LEDs of your choice close to the hotter side & risk burning them out.

My DIY is similar to SeaHorse Fanatics using 10 watt multi chip emitters. It uses individual heatsinks each with it's own fan. The heatsinks are mounted on light aluminum angle stock. Link to my DIY LED build is at the bottom of this post.

I've recently ordered a 5 meter reel of 5050 SMD LED strip lighing to play around with, mainly as possible supplemental lighting and for other uses around the house. They have 60 LEDs/meter providing about 780 to 900 lumens per meter. Run on 12 Volts DC and can be cut at every 3 LEDs if you wish, without affecting the voltage required. Less than $20 from some fleabay vendors for the 300 LED version. If you want to spend a little more, you can score a 5 meter reel of RGB with wireless colour controller & power supply included. There are also waterproof versions. I think RuGlu6 uses something similar in his current LED build, but I'm not sure 5050 SMDs have sufficient penetrating power for most reef tanks. While browsing what's available, I've noticed that you can now get 5050 SMD LED reels that have a double row of emitters, but the price goes up accordingly. Would be a simple solution since the reel has sticky tape on the back & you can cut to the length of your choice (as long as it's in the proper area every 3 LEDs), stick it on pretty much anything & run it with a simple 12 Volt DC power supply. I suppose if you stick a bunch of these close enough together, it would be an ok solution for a FOWLR or maybe a softie tank.

Realistically, if you're going to switch to LEDs, go all the way. This means your going to have to add at least one '0' to your $40 budget, & the 4 will likely need to change as well.

I think I would take a look at the newly cheaper panorama pro's from modularled.ca and save yourself some time. I don't think it can be done for $40. I spent just over $2000 to light my 7' tank and that was an immense amount of work.

The 5050 light strips though may not be a long-term solution. They don't tend to last as long before burning out because I think they are not really designed to be on for 8-12 hours at a time every day. The lower quality ones my friend Bill used lasted a month. Hopefully the ebay ones are higher quality and last a lot longer. I use such strips in place of actinics and as very bright moonlights. I wouldn't consider them anything more.

As with any upgrade, whether you go for just supplemental or complete changeover, do a lot more research and consider more than just your short-term needs. Each of us should do a cost-benefit analysis to see if it is worthwhile to invest $$ now to save $$/time/electricity over time. For me, it was worth "biting the bullet", plus I have the huge advantage of being friends with an electronics & LED expert who can help with my DIY build. I also enjoy these types of projects. Each person is going to be in a different position and must choose what is best for them.

For your situation, this is my take:

- You don't like the frequency or replacement cost of T5HO bulbs, making LED attractive option.
- The width of your tank makes 2 MH pendants an unattractive option because you would again have to spend more for 2 new bulbs annually.
- Overheating is an issue of concern - again ruling out MH.
- Your current lighting is working so you DON"T need to rush into anything too hasty. Better to get it right the first time instead of wasting time & money on an inadequate short-term "fix".
- You are looking for a long-term lighting solution that will save you $$.


- However, your budget is very limited for this project.
- Your budget, if increased a bit, could cover the cost of a supplemental DIY led light.
- Your budget probably won't cover a full replacement build.
- 30" heatsinks are also uncommon and could be relatively expensive.
- Dimmable drivers/power sources are also more expensive (but you really want to be able to dim your LEDs).
- Super cheap components are probably also lower quality and may not have the longevity you need to make it cost effective.

If you know a place to buy Aluminum bars, tubes or U-channels, you could price out how much for them to cut to size what you need instead of buying an off-the-shelf heatsink. Adding a small computer fan or two would increase its efficiency without adding a lot of extra cost.

So do your research and price out components you can source locally or online to see if you can bring down your costs to meet your needs, your budget and your DIY capabilities.

Good luck.

Anthony

PS. His name is Kevin (not Steve):wink:

Thanks for the wonderful insights :)

I guess I will just hold on for now before I get more savings to invest in a proper LED system.

I was looking into in, particularly the RGB one but the fun beings when the controller and the power chord, which costs more in total than a single strip, has to be bought to make it work. Doesn't sound attractive to me :(

Thanks :D. You clearly understood my situation. :mrgreen:

Getting into a supplement LED was my idea since I thought making it would be simpler and cheaper. Electricity consumption is not a concern for me at all since that is taken care by the landlord :D

I can get MH bulbs from ebay for like $40 for two but I am not really sure how reliable they are. Plus for the heating issue, I have to keep my lights quite high with will cause light leak; an ugly excuse for me to not get into halides.

Really confusing :( I guess I will just hold onto the T5s for now and see how things go. I am not really into $50 sps frags and more into the cheaper SPS (lower cost acros for example) and hoping that they will do good.

So for now, I will stick to T5s till christmas and see what comes up for sale during that time. Hopefully I will be able to get something good for a good deal :)

And sorry about messing up with names :$

Nope, it's Kevin. You're close though :razz: Don't worry,meveryone calls me Steve now. Could be worse... Could be seahorse:razz: (I kid, I kid)

I fully encourage you to build your own fixture if you're willing to take some timeand learn. If you go with the info I posted you can a decent LED build on the cheap. You'll learn a lot and it's fun.

Rather than doing one 30" heat sink, consider using two 7"x11", or something along those lines. HeatsinkUSA does have 30" heatsinks but they're like $90. Two heat sinks are like $50.

Building the fixture won't be a challenge since I am an electrical engineer :mrgreen: But fulfilling the requirements seems a lot expensive than I thought :|