Coralvu 400DE Experience

[jlehigh]

Hey All,

I was in a good position to be a guinea pig for the new 400DE set-ups. I have seen lenghty discussions on the reefcentral boards but very few pictures or experiences. I purchased mine from Custom Aquatic (They are an excellent sponsor!!)

My tank is 72 Long 30 tall and 30 deep

The summary of my readings lead me to believe that the 400DE's are really no brighter than the SE's however I was more interested in spread with the pendants. In this aspect I am very pleased as I was able to go from 4 250W to 2 400DE's.

The pendants are 8-10 inches above the water. I am not finatical about even light spread across the entire tank because I have different animals requiring different levels of light, though I do not notice dark areas.

Here are some pictures. I took one picture with 1 400DE running next to a 20K 10K combination of 250W XM's on a PFO ballast. I don't know why but the pic makes the 250 side look very green despite the fact I have no green algae

Another picture is with just one pendant running to show the light spread.

My other pendant did not switch on before I had to head back to lunch.

One notible item I experienced is that these 20K bulbs after burn in are extremely white. I would say they are closer to the 12-14K spectrum. Everything in the tank has been coloring up very nicely and growing well.

 

[szidls]

Tank looks great John. I like your rock work.
Scott

 

[esmith]

Boy, that tank looks awesome!!!
Ditto on the rock work.

Eliyah

 

[jlehigh]

Thanks for the compliments! I get frusterated at pictures of the tank because of the lack of depth.. oh well. I'm hoping some coral life will take the place of the rock dominated appearance

 

[reeffan]

It will, just give it a time to outgrow itself....I also use coralvu pendants but they're 175watt 12k. They're pretty good pendant on my experience...not to mention the price is very affordable. =)

reeffan

 

[kevinpo]

Did you use the Coralvue, ballast, reflector, and bulb combo?

Regards,
Kevin

 

[jlehigh]

Kevinpo~ Yes it was a complete kit, I believe is all Coralvu.

 

[kevinpo]

Thank you

Kevin

 

[Katchupoy]

More pics please....

 

[jlehigh]

What would you like pics of Cesar?

 

[Katchupoy]

Of the tank with the 400 watter...

Also... I pm'ed you about your 250 watt set for sale

 

[RedEyeReef]

jlehigh, Here is some info for you on comparing 400w SE & DE.

I was just at Kevin Pockett reef shop a few days ago where he has 2 PFO 400w DE's set up. I brought my Apogee QMSS-ELEC light meter and can say, the 400w DE's are bright.

Let me start with, I test my bulbs over my reef 8 1/2" under the bulb to see when they need to be replaced. My bulbs are ran off PFO HQI 430w ballasts and in PFO parallel reflectors. My 400w Hamilton 14K reads around 1200 PAR. My Sun Aquatic 14K & 20K read about 1150 PAR.

Kevin and I tested his PFO 400w DE's 20K's at the same 8 1/2" below the bulb and PAR was ranged 1800-1980 using the same ballasts I have.

So both of use running 20K (some 14K) bulbs using the same electricity and getting almost twice the PAR. WOOOOWWWW. The 400w DE 20K's don't look like 20K's, more like a 14K.

Now for a real world 250w DE test. I have one 250w DE Hamilton Reefstar over my reef with a Sun Aquatic 14K bulb in it and my PAR reading through the UV glass @ 8 1/2" is 650 compared to the 1100's or so of my 400w SE.

 

[Katchupoy]

All I can say is wow...

 

[jlehigh]

That is intense! Geesh.. I have more pics but unfortunately my home PC motherboard crashed and I am having HD startup trouble with the replacement so they may take a while to get on here..