# Lighting fixtures, good/bad?



## ingg (Apr 8, 2007)

Jebo, Odyssea, Coralife, Current USA, Catfish Lighting...I'm confused, help!

Being a cheap fella, most of my tanks are running on strings of screw in CF right now.

(Which get a bad rap, I can grow _most_ things anyone else can, but I'm trying to get into more delicate/light intensive things now, and realize I need "real" lights; I keep seeing use 30-50% of wattage for the screw ins, and well, it does more than that for me anyhow. For example: 75 watts of it over a 30 long, and ludwigia turns red, yatabeanus grows well, elatine orientalis and fox tail grow out... but I melt downoi, can't get aromatica purple, blyxa japonica lives but doesn't grow... just lack some of the intensity of "real" lights I think.)

DIY seems to me to be about as expensive as buying a fixture off Ebay for several of these lights, especially once I factor in building a housing/canopy vs. just an open top look. Plus, as two of the tanks are odd shaped (one bow, one flatback hex), canopies become slightly more interesting projects than just building a box with a flap on the front.

Are there lights/brands that are bad, good, stay away from, try to get, etc? I'm seeing folks on some forums say some pose fire hazards, some are just bad, all this mixed and confusing info.

One 26g bowfront (2'), one 30 long and one 33 flatback hex (36", both)... t5 seems to be an issue for the 36" length, so CF seems to be the way to go? Shooting to stay in the 2.5-3 wpg mark.

Think cheap, but right, heh. Trying to stay around $100 max per tank, say. Advice please!


----------



## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

I use "Coralife" fixtures on all my tanks. I've never had a problem with them, very reliable.

Check out our reviews section... http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/reviews/showcat.php/cat/24


----------



## ingg (Apr 8, 2007)

Think I have narrowed it down.

36" Coralife 1X96 watt PC 
http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/209476/product.web 
or 
36" 2X39 HO t5 Nova Extreme fixture. 
http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/236416/product.web

Probably leaning the t5 way.

I'd love to see how well the retro kits of tek reflectors work, but the tank shapes are problematic to building canopies, one bowfront, one flatback hex...

Would the retro and canopy build be worth it, anyone have experience with stock t5 fixtures versus the high end build kits?


----------



## ruki (Jul 4, 2006)

ingg said:


> Jebo, Odyssea, Coralife, Current USA, Catfish Lighting...I'm confused, help!


I've seen some total crap from Odyssea.

Coralife don't have the greatest reflectors, but they keep working and won't catch fire 

I've never used Nova Extreme, but that fixture looks promising. You should get more light per watt of electricity consumed sent down into the tank with that fixture. Have others had experience with this brand in terms of reliability?


----------



## ingg (Apr 8, 2007)

Nova Extremes are made by Current USA I think - Current is on the websites for it, which seems to get decent reviews that I've been able to find on their PC fixtures....

I may end up gutting it some, the reflector says parabolic but looks to be not single bulb parabolic, but it looks worth a try. Worst comes to worst I'm out $40-45 for the reflector replacements, but have a fixture instead of a DIY box.


----------



## ruki (Jul 4, 2006)

Ugh!

I jinxed myself. One of my Coralife 4 foot long twin T5 tube fixture just stopped working. I'll have to take it apart and see what happened...


----------

