Anyone Experimented with Xenon bulbs?

[MikeP]

I recently purchased a 29GAL I intend to make a marine/reef tank and I am under the impression the 20W Actinic spectrum bulb I got won't be enough for any sort of reef to stay alive.

My tank is 30"x13" so I don't have a lot of options for lighting at high intensities, I found.

I have been told by a few people that MH is the way to go, if you can afford it, all the MH bulbs i found around were either 6000K range or 10000K. I was doing some research and found that they have 7500K and 8000K xenon bulbs for cars that come in 55w and 75w varieties for significantly less than any MH system could cost me, and dont require any ballasts or anything.

Has anyone thought of making a canopy using this type of lighting? I looked at the dual-24" 20W fluorescent fixtures at Home Depot, but that's still only 40W of light. I was under the impression you needed around 2W of light per gallon, roughly 60W needed for my tank.

Just wondering if anyone has any input on how well a 7500K or 8000K xenon system running at around 120W in an aquarium this size would do?

I am getting my live rock in about 10 days after letting the tank sort itself out for a while with a dead shrimp in it, so I want to try to take care of the lighting before it becomes time to put in the liverock/creatures.

Any input would be helpful.

-MikeP

[johnfish]

Mike -

Check out this thread on RC:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=141703&highlight=xenon

Cheers:)
John

[johnfish]

I just bought one of these for my 20 gal that is 24" long.

http://www.mops.on.ca/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/cgi-bin/smpagegen.exe?U+scstore+bffb7045ffa5b4a5+-p+-c+scstore.cfg+LICL-53102

Looks really cool.

[MikeP]

OK thanks, that answered most of the questions.

that light looks pretty nice, if only it came with a proper hood assembly, that covered the rest of the aquarium.

[johnfish]

Yeah, that hood is designed for a 24 inch tank like a 20gal tall.

With your 30" tank you will have two 3" gaps on each end.

I would use a couple of 30" pieces of aluminum angle stock to support it. A few small self-tapping screws could be used to secure them to the hood. You might even get away with one piece along the back.

I am hoping the gap at the back will be just right for my little Excaliber skimmer as well as the heater and power heads, etc.

I still don't know what I am going to put in this tank. It was a nano, but now it just has sand, caulerpa and a ton of worms and pods.

Maybe seahorses or a lion fish?