# new 90 gallon lighting opinion needed



## duke105077 (Feb 27, 2010)

im setting up a 90 gallon (48L x 18D x 24H) soon. im torn between the marineland single bright LED lighting and the double bright LED lighting. the double brights are expectedly double the price of the single, but have more blue LEDs included in the set-up. personally, i dont care about the whole "lunar look" at nighttime. when i go to bed i turn the lights off end of story. i need opinions from people who have seen the difference between these lights, and which would look best in my tank. thanks guys!


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## Cromak (Dec 29, 2010)

Single LED is not going to be bright enough and personally I wouldn't do LED at all. I would run a T5 HO setup with 54w bulbs you will be much happier with the brightness.

If you are running an SA planted tank I think LED fits well for that but if you are doing any MBuna/Hap/Peacock etc.. setup T5 HO all day long..

Here is a shot of my tank 90g with 10,000k white and Actinic T5 HO 54w bulbs. I went for that Deep water look..


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## xxbenjamminxx (Jan 22, 2011)

I have the DB's on my 75g and it is an ok brightness. But with a 90g being 4 inches deeper I feel it might be too dark. That would depend on how bright you like your tank too I guess. Dont get me wrong I like the LEDS with the shimmer and all that but feel now that I have had them for a while that they are better suited for a 55g/75g for people who prefer a darker setup. If you EVER plan on adding plants Id just get the T5HO's.

This is mine with the DB's and one 18 inch regular T5 strip light on it.


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## duke105077 (Feb 27, 2010)

thanks guys...no im not going to have any plants-ever. its gonna be a 90 gal. mbuna tank. i want the tank to be as bright as possible. i was leaning towards the LEDs because i wanted the shimmer effect. i like cromack's tank but i dont love it, (no offense). its a little too blue for me. so should i be looking for a T5 HO setup with 2 bulbs or 4? 8000K or 10,000K?


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## Cromak (Dec 29, 2010)

You can run two 10ks that will look good.


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## Norm66 (Mar 3, 2005)

For comparison, here's a pic of my 29 gallon (18" deep) lighted with double bright leds. This is through a rather old and not entirely clean glass top so it's not really as bright as it could be.










I know they're not for everybody, but I'm really happy with the DB LEDs.


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## duke105077 (Feb 27, 2010)

im probably gonna go with the T5s. zoo-med makes a reasonably priced dual lamp setup


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## shellies215 (Jan 7, 2011)

Duke, if you have a lot of surface movement on the water, you will get a shimmer effect from T5HO. It's not as dramatic as with the LED lights though. You will see it on the substrate and rocks, but there isn't beams of light shooting through the water like LEDs.


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## duke105077 (Feb 27, 2010)

im not sure if i would like the beams of light look. if i get a shimmer from the T5HO, i will very happy.


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## jkulysses (Apr 5, 2003)

I'm having the same dilemma right now with the 90g I'm setting up. I'm doing a SA cichlid tank but I personally don't really like any of the led setups I've seen but thats all personal opinion. I've researched for hours and I think after watching some youtube videos of peoples various setups that I've settled on a dual T5HO setup with either 2 6700k bulbs or one 6700k and 1 10,000k bulb. For SA cichlids I'm think two of the 6700k would look best though.


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## prov356 (Sep 20, 2006)

> For SA cichlids I'm think two of the 6700k would look best though.


I would agree, should bring out more yellow/green instead of blue.


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## jkulysses (Apr 5, 2003)

prov356 said:


> > For SA cichlids I'm think two of the 6700k would look best though.
> 
> 
> I would agree, should bring out more yellow/green instead of blue.


Do you know anything about the Aquaticlife dual lamp setup that comes with a 6000K & 650nm Roseate bulb??? I can't find any pictures of videos of this setup but it's the one I'm leaning towards and I could always replace the Roseate bulb. Does the Rose bulb do anything for color or is it just for plant growth??


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## prov356 (Sep 20, 2006)

I haven't used that one, but was interested in checking it out. Here's some info I found.



> AquaticLife T5 HO 650nm Roseate Fluorescent Lamps emit light that closely matches the chlorophyll absorption peak in the red spectrum. *Also enhances the red and orange coloration in tropical aquarium fish *for a vibrant aquarium display. Use with 6,000Ã‚Â°K lamps for ideal illumination of freshwater planted aquariums.


My thinking is that it might bring out some nice color in orange, or red fish, but I'm thinking like the malawi red zebra's or some of the peacocks. Comes down to what you're keeping, specifically. For SA's, probably not going to bring out the colors that you want. The thing I've found with bulbs is that you just have to buy and try. Pics and videos may not show the true color. What fish specifically would this lighting be for?


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## jkulysses (Apr 5, 2003)

I'm not completely decided yet but here's what i'm thinking about so far.

1 Redheaded Severum
1 Blue Acara
1 Firemouth
Either a schoal of Silver Dollars or Buenos Aires Tetras. I'm leaning towards the tetras.
Goldnugget Pleco or another species that gets to around 6" to 9".
Pictus catfish

Would this be a good mix or a recipe for disaster lol??

I found a site called Catalina Aquarium that has some very nice fixtures and very resonable pricing that I think I'm going to give a shot. They have a 3 bulb fixture with 2 seperate switches and power cords so you could have 2 bulbs running, 1 bulb or all 3. Give me options for down the road too if I ever want to do a more heavily planted setup. Right now i just plan on doing Java Ferns & Moss and anything else that can live with these fish and no CO2 setup.


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## jkulysses (Apr 5, 2003)

Ok I just got off the phone with Catalina Aquarium a few mintues ago and got a fixture all ordered up. Very cool people to talk with and they can pretty much custom do a fixture however you like it. I went with a 48" T5 HO fixture with 3 54 watt bulbs and a seperate switch and power cord for each so I can have 1, 2 or 3 bulbs going at any given time. I also had adjustable moon lights installed into the fixture with their own seperate power cord so there will be a total of 4 cords coming out of this fixture lol. Also mounting legs and a splash guard two 6700k bulbs and one Actinic bulb. I got all this for $200 shipped which sounded like an awesome deal to me as long as they turn out to be a good fixture which I haven't been able to find a bad review yet. It's a very small family owned company so they have to be good or they wont make it long.


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## jkulysses (Apr 5, 2003)

Wow my new fixture from Catalina Aquarium arrived yesterday!!!! I ordered it on Tuesday afternoon and it arrived at my work on Thursday around 10am. Thats pretty impressive right there especially since they had to add in another switch and moonlights for me. I wont have pics of it on my tank for a little while though because I haven't finished setting the tank up yet. Soon though very soon


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