Need Help On a Light Fixture for a 75

My Fiance and I are having a hard time finding a good light fixture. She really wants a 6xt5 with moon lights fixture. We've seen some but we wanted to know who can we go to for quality help, best price, best shipping and closest to the east coast so we don't have to wait a week for shipping.

Any leads would be of great help and totally appreciated!!! Thanks!

 

Aquarium Fluorescent Lighting and Lamp Accessories
T5 Aquarium Light Fixture - T5 Light Fixtures for Fish Tanks at AquaCave.com
Champion Lighting & Supply :: Lighting :: T5 Fluorescent :: Fixtures
T5 / HO T5

not great with US geography JMALACHI
so not sure if any of these links are any use to you

Steve

 

Steve, Thank you for the info. Any help is great. We are having the hardest time finding something with all we want for the tank and good for long term too. Thanks again!

 

Steve's first link to Marine Depot won't fit your bill they are in the Los Angeles area.

Aqua Cave is in Ohio, Big Al's is east coat and Champion is also back in your area. Whatever fixture you buy you will want to replace the included bulbs within 6 months as they usually are not top quality.

 

Steve, in your opinion, what would be the best fixtures to get the most out of a coral/fish aquarium. We want to create an environment where they will all thrive and will sustain all kinds of coral. Metal halides, t5, mh/t5 combo's, led's, moonlights?

When looking into a fixture, what exactly are we supposed to be looking for so we don't buy junk that just "looks" good? We are new to this and have been doing a ton of reading but at the end of the day, we are still confused. Thank You in advanced!
(Anyone can answer this too if you want to help us out. We appreciate it all!)

 

Thank You! That helps a ton. We will have our tank and stand tomorrow but still don't have the lights picked out and wanted to start the transfer this weekend. We figured anything outside the east coast will be about a week to two before lights show up.

Thanks again!

 

T5s are probably the most popular these days. The main thing you want to look for in a T5 fixture is single independent reflectors and perhaps bulb options so your not stuck with what it comes with. I would be shooting for a fixture with at least 2 power cords so you can put the blues and whites on at separate times to simulate sunrise/set effect.

Top of the line is probably ATI powermodule T5 fixtures, then tek fixtures. I wouldn't avoid purchasing a fixture just because it doesn't have LED moonlights as most do not. This is something you can buy after the fact too.

The main thing with metal halides is they consume more energy than T5s and get hotter. So cooling is a major must. People buy them for their shimmer affect. They make the water shimmer unlike T5s which kind of just create a constant color. Youtube it metal halides vs t5s or something like that and I'm sure there are videos about it.

LEDs are the newest craze but a little too new for most to hop on the LED train. They are very costly to buy in a fixture and still pretty costly to buy to make a fixture yourself.

 

The type of lighting depends on the corals kept. Please give us a list.

T5HO, LED and MH are all good types of lighting. Also give us a price range you have in mind.

MH and LED give the light glitter but T5HO will not. MH may cause the need for a chiller.

 

Thanks! I did see a few tek/tek elites, icecap and some ati fixtures last night that I liked. The misses just is really stuck on moon lights. I saw some nice separate moon lights that I want to show her and hopefully convince her. lol. Happy wife, happy life.

 

Thanks! Yea, definitely but we want to prepare for all kinds of coral for future stuff. Currently we have, zoas, palys, flowerpot, greenstars, mushrooms, candycanes, favia, acans, hammer, a couple brains, gorgonian, and a palm tree polyp. We also have two clams. As for future corals, we normally will buy what catches our eye's so we don't have a specific idea when it comes to lps, sps, etc. ;D