# Marine lighting help



## seanmackie (Oct 27, 2009)

Hi all,

Once again I'm thinking of converting my Juwel Lido 120 over to marine, I was thinking of using one Arcadia Marine White 14000K T5 Lamp and one Arcadia Marine Blue Actinic T5 Lamp in the Juwel hood, while also adding two Aquabeam 600 Ultra strips. The only problem is there are four types available....

Marine White
Reef White
Marine Blue
Reef blue

I was hoping to get some corals, nothing too fancy, But just wondering what combination do you think I should get? Would I be better Fitting two Arcadia Marine Blue Actinia T5 in the juwel hood, and then adding two Aquabeam 600 Reef White strips, as the Marine White strips would be better for growing corals right?

Thanks Sean

1704-UKAquaBeam 600 Ultra Strip - Marine White single1705-UKAquaBeam 600 Ultra Strip - Reef White single1706-UKAquaBeam 600 Ultra Strip - Marine Blue single1707-UKAquaBeam 600 Ultra Strip - Reef Blue single


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## Leann (Apr 14, 2011)

Hi i might be wrong but I'm pretty sure you cant just whack marine light tube in your original tropical light unit

my marine tank has 4 t5 tubes with reflectors. 2 Marine White and 2 Marine Blue and even then you can only keep certain corals unless you want to upgrade to led or halide light units

if your going to keep corals you will definitely need a reflector on each tube and 2 x Marine White and 2 x Marine Blue tubes. 

i would not wast your time with the Aquabeam 600 Ultra strips they are rubbish. hope this helps a bit:2thumb:


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## owlbassboy (Jun 26, 2008)

if its the t5 unit you will be fine, t5s will be able to sustain most corals but i would recommend going for a diy led unit, i did one with an arduino controller(sounds confusing but i just followed the instructions) and i love it


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## seanmackie (Oct 27, 2009)

Leann said:


> Hi i might be wrong but I'm pretty sure you cant just whack marine light tube in your original tropical light unit
> 
> my marine tank has 4 t5 tubes with reflectors. 2 Marine White and 2 Marine Blue and even then you can only keep certain corals unless you want to upgrade to led or halide light units
> 
> ...


Whats makes you say the T5's cant go in the hood? They are the same size as standard Juwel T5 bulbs.

You say two marine white and two marine bulbs will be needed, I'm not too sure how I would go about adding another two to the Juwel hood, thats why I usggested the Aquabeams.

What makes you say the Aquabeams are rubbish? You say I would need to upgrade to LED's for some corals, Well the Aquabeam strips are LED's :hmm:

Thanks for the reply though :2thumb:


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## seanmackie (Oct 27, 2009)

owlbassboy said:


> if its the t5 unit you will be fine, t5s will be able to sustain most corals but i would recommend going for a diy led unit, i did one with an arduino controller(sounds confusing but i just followed the instructions) and i love it


Any pics mate? How much did that set you back?

How many T5's would you recommend? Just one of each or tow of each?


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## Leann (Apr 14, 2011)

think that the starter unit in your standard tropical light are not as powerful as the ones used in marine lighting. i might be wrong but if this was the case every one would save lots of money when converting there tanks. so you might have to invest some money in a new light unit

also you need a minimum of 4 light tubes if your looking into keeping corals, so therefore you would need a new light unit (arcadia are the cheapest on the market and not bad quality either)

Aquabeams are really cheap and nasty led, and your corals would probably die under them because the amount of light given out by them are very weak. led are a new thing at the minute in the marine world and people are still testing how good they are with keeping corals. there are some really good led unit out there at the min but its if you can afford the money to buy them. 

i only use led for my night light just to give a good blue effect on all my corals, also make them glow in the dark (looks like somthing out of the film avatar lol)

halide lighting is the best lighting out there and you can keep any coral under halides

:welcome:


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## seanmackie (Oct 27, 2009)

Leann said:


> think that the starter unit in your standard tropical light are not as powerful as the ones used in marine lighting. i might be wrong but if this was the case every one would save lots of money when converting there tanks. so you might have to invest some money in a new light unit
> 
> also you need a minimum of 4 light tubes if your looking into keeping corals, so therefore you would need a new light unit (arcadia are the cheapest on the market and not bad quality either)
> 
> ...


My LFS that deals mainly with marine fish and they said the Arcadia T5's would be fine on my Juwel tank, but they may be wrong. You say the Aquabeams are cheap for LED's but one strip is about £100 and I was think of getting two, so I would have two T5's and two Aquabeam strips. I
Dont know about you but £200 for two strips is not each for me :lol2: have you got a link to the lights you advise?


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## Arcadiajohn (Jan 30, 2011)

hi just a couple of lines to help. Juwell have adjusted there lamp sizing in a marketing effort to control lmap sales so that you can only but lamps off of juwell. they moved away form international lamp lengths. So in short until very recently you could only use a cheap asina juwell lamp in a juwell tank,

this year we were proud to launch the Arcadia marine hybrid lamp. this is a 60% 14k white and 40% marine blue actinic lamp all in one lamp. This very clever lamp has all the health benefits of our marine range of lamps with huge amounts of light and a very special NEW phosphor for human colour rendition. in simple terms your tank will look better under hybrid than any other lamp available.

with regard to coral growth, corals need energy from light not just light. this is why most keepers who go over to all LED experiance high colours for 6-9 months then the coral dies off. They colour up under stress and cannot feed with out the energy., see the Arcadia website for the university of southampton reaserch proving this that we particapated with. to conclude we now make the marine hybrid in juwell sizes and they will run fine in the tank. we call the J5s.

the rule of thumb for hard coral growth is thus, you need to provide 1 watt of light from any source, halide, T5, T8 LED or plasma per litre of water available. If your provide lighting and balanced water chemistory at the right levels there is not a coral you cannot keep succesfuly. 

If you need any really techie details please contact George Fidoe on salty box or ultimate reef or reef builders for detailed answers from Arcadia.

i hope that helps


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## seanmackie (Oct 27, 2009)

Arcadiajohn said:


> hi just a couple of lines to help. Juwell have adjusted there lamp sizing in a marketing effort to control lmap sales so that you can only but lamps off of juwell. they moved away form international lamp lengths. So in short until very recently you could only use a cheap asina juwell lamp in a juwell tank,
> 
> this year we were proud to launch the Arcadia marine hybrid lamp. this is a 60% 14k white and 40% marine blue actinic lamp all in one lamp. This very clever lamp has all the health benefits of our marine range of lamps with huge amounts of light and a very special NEW phosphor for human colour rendition. in simple terms your tank will look better under hybrid than any other lamp available.
> 
> ...


Thats great thanks :2thumb:


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## Moogloo (Mar 15, 2010)

:2thumb: For John and Arcadia, Arcadia LEDs and lights are ace 

I think the confusion over putting the Arcadia T5s in your tank was that most Juwel tanks had T8 lighting and i think it was mistaken that you were wanting to put T5s into T8 starter units.

Or at least... thats how i read the conclusion...

However... did want to point out that as good as metal halides are, very few people are keeping them any more, they are extortionately expensive to buy and run and also create a LOT of heat meaning a lot of people would end up needing to fork out for chillers too.

LEDs is the way its going... personally... *i'm* not a fan of TMCs LED lighting, or at least, i have only found it to work longer than 5 or 6 months if they are backed up by good T5s as well, however the shimmery effecy is work it and the multiway controller on storm mode is awesome : victory:

I think Arcadia is going to whoop TMC at this rate, like John said, people are suddenly finding that the LEDs were rushed out in a bid to beat everyone else to it and subsequently, they are going to find other companies come out with better thought out products.

TBH you can keep soooo many different types of corals under two T5s, most softies will be fine, Leather Corals, Toadstools, Mushrooms, Riccordia, Zoanthids (come is every colour under the sun!), Sun corals (if you are brave )

You can always upgrade lighting from that later on, its not like you will want to put hard corals or many corals at all in for the first few months!

Personally, Id go with two of Arcadias T5 lights to fit into the light ballast that you have already and later on, invest in one or two of Arcadias LEDs which shouldnt be too difficult to modify into your tank (should easily be able to screw holders onto each of the lid flaps to hold an LED strip


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## seanmackie (Oct 27, 2009)

Moogloo said:


> :2thumb: For John and Arcadia, Arcadia LEDs and lights are ace
> 
> I think the confusion over putting the Arcadia T5s in your tank was that most Juwel tanks had T8 lighting and i think it was mistaken that you were wanting to put T5s into T8 starter units.
> 
> ...


How would the corals do just under two T5's taking into account my tank is like 2ft in height. Didnt know Arcadia did LED's but just been looking at them now, and they dont seem to say they help with coral growth, just more they help bring out the colours. Have you any experience with the Arcadia LED's?


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## Moogloo (Mar 15, 2010)

Their marine specific LEDs are good  the other ones are just for promoting colour, we use the colour ones a lot and a colleague has now ripped out his T5s (he didnt have space fr both) and ditched TMC LEDs in favour of Arcadia Marine Blues and the whites. Aparently his corals are doing amazing now! He has mostly softies with a Hammerhead and some Christmas Tree corals of various species that for the life of me cant keep under anything but Halides and his arent just doing well but growing fast and furious and he is having to frag them!

Send John a PM, he knows the most but i t hink the Arcadia LEDs are really new and not many people have them, they arent cheap but better priced than TMCs! 

Will have to chat with John myself, i really ought to know more by now! lol

edit: Lots of corals do alright under T8 lighting so even under T5 lighting, they will still be ok (see previous post for some corals).

Plus you can build your liverock up, the corals wont necessarily be on the floor of your aquarium


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## seanmackie (Oct 27, 2009)

Moogloo said:


> Their marine specific LEDs are good  the other ones are just for promoting colour, we use the colour ones a lot and a colleague has now ripped out his T5s (he didnt have space fr both) and ditched TMC LEDs in favour of Arcadia Marine Blues and the whites. Aparently his corals are doing amazing now! He has mostly softies with a Hammerhead and some Christmas Tree corals of various species that for the life of me cant keep under anything but Halides and his arent just doing well but growing fast and furious and he is having to frag them!
> 
> Send John a PM, he knows the most but i t hink the Arcadia LEDs are really new and not many people have them, they arent cheap but better priced than TMCs!
> 
> ...


 
Whats Johns user name on here so I can give him a PM? Sorry for all the questions, but what do you think about this....

I'm going to install two Arcadia Marine Hybrid T5 lamps Arcadia the leaders in pet-care lighting technology - Marine Hybrid T5 lamps .As these are 60% Marine White 14,000K / 40% Marine Blue 420nm, would I be better getting Two Arcadia Eco-Aqua Daylight LED rather than one Arcadia Eco-Aqua Daylight LED and one Arcadia Eco-Aqua Marine Blue LED? Arcadia the leaders in pet-care lighting technology - ECO AQUA LED

Do you have any pics of your set ups and light by the way?


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