lights, wattage, energy, cost for a REEF tank

errrggghhh...so i just wanted to find out how much expensice MH are.
i do not want my electric bill to skyrocket. so i was wondering what you guys' experiences.

i am looking into MH w/ T5 , T5HO quad, or LED (like marineland reef capable)

thanks guys

I have freshwater but use a fixture that has T5's x4. I feel the heat off these and also notice my daytime tank temp is about a degree or two higher than my nighttime. When I build my canopy I want to switch over to LED's. I would go a DIY route and purchase from these guys: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

DMD123 wrote:I have freshwater but use a fixture that has T5's x4. I feel the heat off these and also notice my daytime tank temp is about a degree or two higher than my nighttime. When I build my canopy I want to switch over to LED's. I would go a DIY route and purchase from these guys: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I have the same lights and they put off alot of light and heat. They are pretty energy efficient as well.

how are the quads on the cost for your electricity?

dondud wrote:how are the quads on the cost for your electricity?

If you look up your electric company online they might have a calculator where you can enter the wattage and the amount of hours the light will be one during the day. Then it will tell you the price. The thing that costs a lot is the pump for my wet/dry and my heater. The heater is always on and the pump is running 24/7..

@jantilla - thanks..are you using ur quad for freshwater?

DMD and I use two of these are our 210's.

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It comes in a saltwater version as well.

The fixtures were cheap, right under $100 for two 36" ones. Might be higher now. I did not notice a huge jump in electricity use so I really cant say how efficient they are. These are built cheap and I have had one bulb go out and the end caps that hold the tubes are loose. Very cheaply made so I dont give it a long life. I will probably gut it and put LED's in or do LED's on the inside top of the canopy I build.

DMD123 wrote:The fixtures were cheap, right under $100 for two 36" ones. Might be higher now. I did not notice a huge jump in electricity use so I really cant say how efficient they are. These are built cheap and I have had one bulb go out and the end caps that hold the tubes are loose. Very cheaply made so I dont give it a long life. I will probably gut it and put LED's in or do LED's on the inside top of the canopy I build.

I thought you loved the lights? You had me get them lol. I think they are pretty nice and I haven't had any issues. Mine are on at least 12 hours a day.

For the money they are good. Just not the best construction.... wait till you have to change tubes, then you till see what I mean.

I have both the marineland reef LED and the beam works LED, both are pretty great, the marineland is superior though....and they are on sale on Foster Smith right now. They do not raise the tank temp like a MH will and they only draw the wattage that a pair of florescent would, 50watts or something.

@troutbrandon - whats a beam works led? is that like a generic version? i m assuming you are using them on a reef tank? u using both of them together?

troutbrandon wrote:I have both the marineland reef LED and the beam works LED, both are pretty great, the marineland is superior though....and they are on sale on Foster Smith right now. They do not raise the tank temp like a MH will and they only draw the wattage that a pair of florescent would, 50watts or something.

I am curious why you think the Marinelands are better. They are identical in every way for the most part.

Yes I use both side by side, and yes I think the beam works is a cheaper Chinese knock off. As to why I think the marineland is better, its strictly an assumption I had. I got the beam works first, a 48'' for just under 200, but my two small corals within 2 days (maybe less) started not looking good, so I panicked and ordered the marineland, got the 36" for 300, and the corals perked back up. And when I compare how they look, I just think the 36" ML lights the tank better than the 48" BW. So its my guess that the BW a.)isn't proper reef light b.)isn't properly rated or c.)its just my imagination and it would have worked fine.
currently I run both lights side by side.

There are quite a few LED options out there as well as the DIY kits. You can get pretty creative how and where you direct the light with them as well if you were to run a couple of smaller units, I'm assuming your lighting a reef tank here.

yea

I went from a 500w MH with 260w PC, which was way overkill for my 75g, down to about 120w of LED, quiet a drastic drop in wattage, so far everything seems to be fine. The MH setup also raised the temp of my tank by about 4 degrees, and caused algea to grow like crazy both of which are not an issue with the LED. The coral did love the intense light of the MH but it was just way to intense for what I have going. So just keep that in mind too, I wouldn't recommend trying to keep any hard corals or clams or any high light requirement animals with LED, or at least the cheaper available models; for all I know the more high end models may compare to MH in terms of intensity. I also want to say I am a relative newbie to reefs, not sw, just reef, so I'm kind of learning what lighting setups work as I go, been kind of expensive so far!

yea i been reading that u prolly cant keep the high light requiring animals with the LED but i was wondering if i decide to keep those kind of animal in the future, could i just supplement the LED with a T5 quad lighting.

when u mentioned overkill, u can tell from the corals bleaching?

By overkill I just meant, the fixture was massive, the illumination escaping the tank and lighting up my living room was incredible and terrible for the highly reflective plasma tv, the excessive heating up of the tank, and the algea explosion were all signs to me that it was way to much light, was probably intended for 120 or whatever the bigger tanks they make that are 48" wide.
And supplementing with t-5 is an awesome idea. Its the ideal setup in my mind, some good LED strips strategically placed where you want your most desirable coral and then t5 on the outsides to supplement everything else, all tucked into a nice matching hood. Oh to have a bigger budget!

thank you for the information. it sure helps.
if the display pic is your tank, it certainly looks good!

dondud wrote:thank you for the information. it sure helps.
if the display pic is your tank, it certainly looks good!

that is my tank in its current state, nothing extravagant, not even that many fish, and just a few frags, and a bunch of inverts. Like a work of art constantly changing and being enhanced