Can you attach a T5 retrofit under a canopy?

I can not find the Aquactinic retro kits. Any site you use?

 

They are not sold as kits, yet... Tom is working on that. Go to whatever site you are planning on using, MAKE SURE they Aquactinic's stuff, and get yourself, the SLRs, endcaps, standoffs and ballasts. Lamps of course are needed as well as extra wiring, which you can get at hardware stores....

To answer you question before as to why certain retros are more $$, say SLS or Tek for example, they sell plug and play retros that all you need to do is mount, they are more than the ones that are just pieces that YOU need to wire and assemble.

Good luck

 

I think that a finished plug and play would be the direction for me to go with. Would you get the TEK or IC?
2nd how many watts do you think I should go with for what corals I want?

thanks

 

You have a 90 I take it?

Well my ND t5s are giving me 270uMols at the sand dead center of a 24" deep tank, BUT since my lamps are 5' and not 6' the ends of the tank are NOT that high. 270uMol will easily grow most SPS, heck I have a green birdsnest that is growing like a weed in about 150uMols. Honestly I would say 6 ND lamps or if you want to get crazy go with 7, OD your daylights and run the blues/actinic normal, you could get away with 2 ballasts that way an IC and a WH.

 

Its tough to use watts... I only have 640 over a 180...

 

So that gives you about 3.5 watts per gallon. Do you feel that is enough for your corals?
6 bulb Tek is 324w and that would give my 90g about 3.6w per gallon.
8 bulb Tek is 432w and would give my 90g 4.8w per gallon.
The 4 bulb IC fixture with OD is 320w giving 3.55 per gallon.

I don't want to buy lights again, but I also don't want to bleach out corals that I want to get.
Any opinions on what direction is best or most done?

 

3.5 is enough for me and my tank.... I would suggest taking a look at it, the link is in my sig, you can then determine what amount you would like to go with, remember many LPS are from turbid lagoonal areas and don't need to be blinded with light or pummeled with flow....

 

Fragenstein your 180g looks great and so does your lighting! As I read through your post I noticed you said that if you ever needed to add more watts you would change out the ballast and IC and then overdrive your lights.
Could I do the same if I get a 6 bulb 324w TEK and need more watts in the future? Atleast the daylight bulbs?

John

 

Sorry, no sources for that, just passing on what I've been told about them so take that as you will.

And if there is any info to contradict my understanding I'd love to see it as well. I don't mind being wrong.

 

Thanks, yeah I could either add another ballast and two more lamps or swap out the WH for IC ballasts, I was thinking about using a IC for my daylights, BUT the price for the IC ballast is IME too much $$ as compared to my cheapo WH.You could easily do the same, all you would need to do is cut the wires and splice them to the wires that come with the IC, all you would need is some 30 cent butt splices from the hardware store. It will take you no time at all.