Time to upgrade....?

Well the novas have served their purpose, and as I start to get into more high end corals I feel like I need to provide them with better lighting and with that comes a better fixture... I am looking at the TEK fixtures and DIY retros, which is better? I will likely only need 2, maybe 3 bulbs so i feel the fixture would be a huge disadvantage with how much it is. Then there is the icecap retros, why are these so expensive and are the icecaps better than the TEK? Anyone have any experince with either? I might not upgrade for a while but when I do I want it to be the last light upgrade. What is the best T5 retro or fixture for the money? I should probably put that I am looking for the 24 inch models with maybe 2 or 3 bulbs. Anyone have any pictures of either set up on their tanks? Thanks for any info you can provide!

 

hmmm, I was actually thinking about doing a 70w MH and maybe two TEK retros on either side, any thoughts on that? I just really want good coral growth and color, and the Novas are OK but the color is still sub-par at best. Would love to have that crazy eye popping look in my tank ;D

 

this is going on that frag tank right?

18 gallons right

 

yeap, roughly 17 inches high, maybe a bit less.

 

well i think that may be worth trying.

 

see that's the thing, it's quite a bit of money to just "try" it out, but then again what else isn't in this hobby... I would love to see some tek or icecap tanks with that eye popping glow

does the 70 watt put out much heat?

 

I love my T5/MH combo, and get great growth from it. But I have no idea how much a 70 watt light would heat up your tank. Maybe not much? Just using logic, you have about half the tank size, and would have half the light, so maybe it would be similar to mine? I personally have no heat issues what-so-ever.
With that being said, if you get a retro, how are you going to mount it? They are made to go inside of canopies. All they are are bulbs, reflectors, end caps, and the ballast, that you have to wire up and mount yourself. And I know you don't like canopies With that being said, I have a friend that just had a pretty bad experience with Icecap and their customer service, so I would be wary.

I personally would say TEK or add a MH pendant to what you already have

 

I'm the one he was refering to. My icecap ballast blew up after 2 days and it was barely on at all. Capacitors blew I guess. Anyways I coud never get a hold of them as they were on the east coast and close early and no one seems to answer the phones. After an email they told me to send it in and I did and asked for a response when they received it. Good thing I put tracking on it. They never called. Called back 4 days later to find out the service manager took off on vacation. Was never even hinted at about this. Took several emails and more phone calls to get a response out of anyone in the company. Overall took more than 2 weeks to get repaired and the lack of communication in my opinion was awful.

 

Once you go halide, you never go back

 

i thought the saying was once you go halides, you go blind