Current USA Orbit Lighting

[huzyrdadi]

I'm in the process of planning my next tank. This will be my first true plant tank. I have a couple of small tanks now that have some plants, but I think it's time to get serious.

I have picked up a 100 gallon reef ready tank (60"x18"x18"). After I build the stand and get it in place the next item of business will be to purchase a light.

At this point I've decided on the Current USA Orbit 60" carried by Pet Mountain.com. ( Current USA - 60" 4X65W (1025) - B ) The four bulb unit comes with two blue actinics, so I'll initially replace those with Sunpak dual daylight bulbs. ( Current USA - 65Watt 21.25" x 1.75" x 1" (2034) ).

The output doesn't take me to 3 watts per gallon but it's close. I figure it will be good enough for a newbie tank.

Does anyone have any experience with Current USA or the Orbit series? I haven't been able to find many reviews of the product.

Thanks for any input.

 

[Left C]

Hi H

I have two of the Orbit fixtures. One is a 2x40w and the other is a 2x65w fixture. They are excellent PC fixtures. IMO, they are better than the Coralife Aqualight PC's. The Orbit reflector is much wider than the Aqualight and it is comparable to AHSupply's excellent reflector. The Orbit has three power cords with 2 on/off switches. The fan comes on with the front bulbs.

I replaced my dual actinic 65w bulb with a Coralife 65w Colormax/6700K square pin bulb. Coralife Colormax-6700K 65W Power Compact Lamp-Sq.Pin at Big Al's Online

Many people are going to HO T5's. Have you looked at these? The SunlightSupply.com TEK fixture is popular.

 

[huzyrdadi]

Thanks for the feedback. After doing some more research, I'm probably going to go with an AHSupply kit. I haven't completley ruled out the Orbit fixture, but since I'm building a custom top/canopy anyway, the DIY kit might work out better for me. I won't need to make as tall a cover.

I plan on wiring up some DIY LEDs for moonlighting too.

I do dig the T5's, but they're just out of my price range. The first thing that attracted me to the Oribit fixture was the low price.