lighting

[robert zoost]

i am building a 90 gallon salt water tank i have a 400 watt metal halide 20000 kelvin bulb for a tank thats 30 inches deep. is there any other lighting i should be looking at. i was thinking of putting a moon light' i am new to this so i am open to ideas the tank is in a hall way where there are no windows. so thats why i choose the metl helide . the 20000k bulb is a blueish white so do i need to also have actanic tubes with the metal helide. i also wood like moon light for looks at night when you walk by. if you think i need both lights how long should i plan on keeping them. i am new to this so bre with me thanks.

 

[Krish]

Welcome to Rf Robert! Moon lights are cool. They say that they help with spawning and also gives the tank a "dusk to dawn" effect. It isn't necessary though, as more people are out there without moonlight IMO, than with, but are still really cool to have. About any other lighting, I'm not all that familiar with 20,000k, but I think they give you some blue spectrum and you do want some blue spectrum in there as most marine life requires it. Some people say 50/50 white:blue, but don't quote me on that one. Best of luck to you

 

[liveforphysics]

If you are going to light a tank with a single 400watt halide, keep in mind your critical angles when decideinig your reflector and placement. Critical angle is the max angle perpendicular to the surface which light will either pennitrate or bounce off. Light that bounces off of course doesnt do your or your corals a bit of good.

In an application like yours, the light the corals see could easily be changed by a magnitude of 4 or more depending on light height and reflector.

 

[wrightme43]

Hi Welcome to reef frontiers.
The genrally accepted rule is that a single Mh bulb will light a 24" in length area.
If your 90 is standard its going to be 48" long. So most people would reccomend two bulb ballast reflector combos
20,000k bulbs are a love em or dont thing.
I think they are super cool, but I run 14000k on my tank in comprimise to increase growth.
Lighting is most inportant in relation to what you intend to keep.
So the old the more let us know the more ideas you will get.
Glad your here

 

[sryder]

I would consider actinic power compacts for a dawn, dusk effect. It will also give you a 2-4 hour longer viewing time.

 

[lj_smith]

14k MH are good with a few compact actinics for that bluish tinge look. I also use a couple of marine white compact T5's to highlight shadowed areas and the background, works well for me

 

[morgan]

i use only 1 14000k metal halide over my 4 foot 50 gallon tank want the pc antantics for dawn dusk but no where to put it next to the huge hood its in and talking bout moonlights would love sum of that use an led light but how do u wierd something like that anyone know

 

[Krish]

Morgan, you can use LED's. A friend of mine bought some Viper (the alarm) LED's from our shop and put resistors on them and used a 12v power supply and Walla! He has moon lights(LOL)

 

[liveforphysics]

I bought 1000 super blue LEDs (5,000mcd @ 430nM), 1000 near UV LEDs (2,500 mcd, and they have the ability to florece reactive pigments, but I dont know the wavelegnth, looks like deep purple light), 1000 "pink" LEDs, which look REALLY good in the moon light array.


If anybody wants LEDs and/or diagrams how to wire them up, or even pre-wired LEDs or whatever would be handy, just let me know. I will sell them very cheap as I bought direct from hong-kong and got them for less than $0.07 apiece.

I dont wana thread hyjack, but if anybody is interested, just PM me. If you arent local and want them shipped Im sure they would fit into a normal padded envelope easily.