Lighting advice - building 180gal reef

[scungili]

Hi I promise to post some pics of my built in work in progress...

I could use some advice on Lighting. I was thinking of going with (2) 250W 10K or 14.5K Ushios. Any thoughts here?

I like the Lumen bright 3 pendants. 19" dia

I don't know which ballasts are best for bulb longevity, brightness, and ballast longevity. I heard Ice Caps are not that great, but not that bad either.

My tank is 22.5" height, 24" width, 72" long.

I also plan to run a Iwaki 55RLT and use the head pressure for several outlets hidden in live rock.

Lastly, I was told that Octopus 250 would be sufficient.

 

[Curtswearing]

I prefer the 14.5k's

I personally liked my Icecap ballast

 

[Myteemouse]

Areyou gonna put a HOOD on this thing?
if so and you want to add VHO atantics of T-5's for more lighting you might want to go with the smaller14-16" reflectors so you have room forthe atantics?
Just a thought

 

[scungili]

No hood just the halide pendants. What are the drawbacks in doing this? I see lots of people with combos, I just wanted to keep it simple.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

With a 6 foot tank, better with 3 lights. I too prefer the icecaps.

 

[scungili]

sale on PFO dual 250W. Anyone know about PFO's?

 

[roscoe]

PFO ballast are good. Just to chunky for my taste. I like the IC ballast because it has a small FP, energy efficient and it can run both mogul and DE bulbs. There are other nice ballast out there such as the Lumenteks and Galaxy ballast just to name a couple.

The benefits of running both halides and vho or t-5s is that you can have a dawn to dusk effect and with the vho or T-5's you can customize the colors to your liking. I also agree with Mike you will need at least 3 reflectors to cover a 6' tank. I just got a call from a rep from Lumenarc a few days and they are gearing up to put out some new products. They have been going through some kind of legal battles with another reflector maker and now everything has been ironed out. Supposedly they are using some type of new high tech material that is much lighter than the older style. Lumenarc are now using thumb screws for ease of bulb replacement on their DE fixture.

 

[scungili]

Thanks, all this is sound advice. I think I'll look into a different type of reflector so that I have room for actinics later down the road. I'm trying to see what minimum lighting is required for a reef tank considering I have a shallow tank (22"height) and I plan to position light hogging corals at the top of my live rock mounds. Im definitely going with some lunars and heard that there are some that go underwater. But I haven't found any online accept for some cheap ones that got bad reviews. Anyone have submerged Lunar lights?

 

[Myteemouse]

250w should be fine for your MH if your only 22" deep

 

[scungili]

OK, I just ordered a dual 250w PFO pulse start ballast for $169. They are magnetic and they are meant to operate a mogul.

I initially wanted an electronic and a HQI.

But the salesperson, (he did sound well informed) says that the mogul throws off just as much light if not more with the new reflectors. (?)

Secondly, he added that if I were to go with a german bulb (which I do - Ushio250w) then the magnetic pulse start will not shorten the life of my bulb (as magnetics have been known to do) (?)

Are either of these true statements?

Has anyone had bad experiences with a Magnetic pulse ballast and an expensive German bulb?

I'd hate to find out the $100 I saved will cost me $$$ in bulbs down the road...

 

[roscoe]

IMO ushio bulbs are YUK. Their 14k bulb is freaking yellow still. I don't know to many people that uses pulse start ballast so I can't help there but those I do know that had them got rid of them for one reason or another. I can't remember why.

 

[scungili]

Thanks, anyone else have knowledge about Magnetic ballast and Mogul base. I may not be too late to cancel the order. Damn, those sales!