cheap halide,t5,or vho

Hi I need a light that is good for sps/clams and is $120 or less with shipping. It also cant hang from the ceiling it has to be mounted on the tank. I was thinking of a odyssea or some sort of vho setup.

 

By the way this is for my 36gallon bow.

 

Good luck. You get what you pay for in this hobby.

 

I'm very young when it comes to knowledge but I like the T5s...I went with T5HO glo system that gave me the bulbs and connectors (Is this what we refer as retro??) and I built a hood with some lumber and reflectors for under $100.

I liked the T5s compared to PCs (which I switched from) because of better lighting and didn't get Halides because of the price and the temperature of T5s are way less then Halides and PCs.

I don't have a chiller (nor the money) and my air conditioner in the house is horrible so I leave windows open often....my tank is always under 81 degrees and is set for 78 with my heater (I don't know what reef aquariums should actually be).

 

Unless your tank is only a few inches deep I dont think you will find a light shipped that will do all that.

 

I bought two of these, others will have more knowledge but my coraline algae is growing, my colt coral is growing too fast (time to frag multi peices) and my zoas seem to like it:

GLO T5 HO Electronic Fluorescent Lighting System

You should be able to find two and 4 bulbs for around $140-$170 online if you are willing to build a hood (right now I have a temporary that isn't even painted untill christmas when I get better wood cutting tools).

Take my word at the quality for what it's worth, others will have better knowledge than I.

 

As stated above, you get what you pay for in this hobby. Two things IMO that should never be skimped on are skimming and lighting. Odyssea is one of the worst fixtures out there. They are flat out terrible. I have owned odyssea. I have owned Jebo. From what I understand they are basically the same company and that does not surprise me. They were equally poor in construction and effectiveness. Mine were PC fixtures, but no one is going to convice me that the T5s are any better quality.

If I were you, I would save your money and do it right the first time. Look at reefgeek.com. Take a peek at the Tek lights. You will spend some money. For what you need about three times what you want to spend, but if you buy a piece of junk now, you are most likely going to ditch it down the road for something good anyway.....and then the price has increased to four times.

I run an 8x54W Tek over my 90 and it rocks.

Also, you get the good bulbs with a reefgeek purchase. Odyssea will supply you with some of the worst bulbs out there. And you cannot put good bulbs into the fixture. The ballasts will go south, so you are stuck with their bulbs. It is just an icky thing to do and I cannot stress enough to stay away from that company's products.

 

The truth has been spoken.

 

what about VHO lighting could I build a fixture for under $120. Will it be enough for sps?
Thanks

 

I agree odyssea is crap. I have their t5 4x54 fixture. It works, but yes, I will be swapping it out for something much better. The design is exactly the same as coralife fixtures but possibly cheaper plastic. I got mine for $100 from a local odyssea wholesaler. The only reason I'm running these lights is to hold me over. I had some power compacts laying around and ended up selling them for 100 and getting these. So basically traded my pc fixture. I swapped out the bulbs day 2 of owning them. The color was decent but not exactly what I wanted. The bulbs were standard length t5s and the actinic was 460nm, not just a painted blue bulb. For me, anything was better than my pcs, but if I had to go back, I would've just saved another 150 and got some retros. But the fixture does have independent switches for daylight, actinic, and led. There are 8 blue leds that make the water shimmer and look really cool at night. There are 2 fans that turn on as needed. 100% quiet. Another nice thing was that the endcaps can be moved around. So if you want one switch to control every other bulb ect. Worth $100-125 yes, worth a penny more no. I haven't had a chance to take it apart and check out the installed ballast but will soon.