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- Ventura Frag Swap ,Ventura ,CA on Dec 5th -09
When I first setup my aquarium I wanted a nice lighting setup. I knew that one of the most important things in a reef aquarium was the lighting for the corals. You could have everything perfect in your reef aquarium yet your corals would not be getting the correct lighting they need and all your corals would die. If you haven’t bought a “frag”, or a real coral yet. It won’t be fun to your pocket book. You might as well get used to it. This is one expensive hobby. I finally decided on the Metal Halide/T5 fluorescent combo by Aqua Medic. Aqua Medic is based in Germany. Most of their units are either made in Germany or Asia. This unit was made in Germany.
Overall the build quality of this light is amazing, super duty ballast which is all in one and ingenious hanging canopy. This unit is very sturdy and very strong. My only gripe with this unit is that it has to be hung from the ceiling at the time of this writing. The rumor is that they will come out with a overhang for the aquarium, but this isn’t certain. One of the nicest things when I have people over is that they comment on the light, I get lots of “WOW”, “Holy cow” (I live in Texas), etc. I call it the shock and awe effect, and love it!
I included some additional shots of the ballasts. Its important to note that I have two tile pieces under the ballast unit to give it ventilation. This is very important, as this unit can get hot if just sitting on carpet. I would also recommend that it be out in the open, at least drawing breeze or air from somewhere. If you decide to put it in a cabinet I would use a fan for ventilation. You can easily notice the three ballasts inside the main ballast box. Two are for each of the 250 watt Metal Halide HQI lights, and another for the 2 T5 lights. Im currently not using the outlet for the T5 ballast and have it directly connected into my Reef Keeper 2.
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