Q about MH lights

[sstainba]

So we just upgraded from a 75G to a 125G but have yet to upgrade the lights... I have an orbit 2x150 10000K HQI + 4x96 ACT that is suspended over the 125 tank. Things are going ok, except there is an area on each side that is kinda dark because the light fixture is one 4-foot piece in the middle of the tank. So I'm looking at getting new lights and I wanted some advice.

I want to get 14000K bulbs so that the corals/anemones/mushrooms fluoresce a bit more. I found some ReefStar 250 pendants and was thinking of getting 3 of them and maybe some small actinants to acts as sunset/dusk lighting.

Any comments? These pendants are HQI if anyone cares.

 

[knowcrap]

You might want to re-think lighting altogether and look at going with a MH + VHO/T5/Power Compact to supplement (personally I use 100% MH with no supplement lighting)...this is the concept I think you are intending to go for eventually.

In this case you can better position 2 or 3 MH pendants above your tank to get optimum lighting and drive a more powerful light (if that is what you desire). My personal thoughts are that the 2 x 150's are not going to be enough to really get good light to the bottom of your tank and that you are sort of stuck with the position of the lighting in the Orbit retrofit.

Lumen Max 2/3 pendants seem to be all the rage right now, giving a broad spread of light into the tank. I have seen many of them used in local fish stores and they are great.

The above rant was from the perspective of keeping SPS in your tank...if you are going to only keep animals that don't require such strong light in your tank you might think about using a pure T5 setup in the hood.

Ultimately there are endless ways to achieve good lighting in a system...I might honestly recommend you first look at either tanks in your local fish stores and/or other peoples tanks and get a feel for what you like. Once you have an idea of color and styles of lighting you like, coupled with the types of corals you plan to keep in your tank, you can then put together an optimal system that will meet your needs for years to come.

Good luck!

 

[Scooterman]

What are the dimensions of your tank?
What are you keeping or ever plan on keeping?

 

[sstainba]

Knowcrap... i'm not sure if you actually read what i posted, but i currently have MH + PC like you mention and I am talking about going to all MH.




Scooterman:

It's a standard 125... So it's 72"L x 20"W x 22"H. Right now there are a few fish, 4 anemones (2x bubble, 1x LT, 1x rock), a bunch of polyps (glove, button) mushrooms and a frogspawn. I plan on getting a few mor corals, but I'm not sure which type. I have some pretty tall rocks, so if I need very bright light, I have plenty of places to put the animals.

I'm just wondering if 3x 250 14K is too much and if I should go for 3x150 + some PC or something.

 

[Scooterman]

Well all depends on what you want to keep on the corals as to what or how much lighting, generally to keep anything 3 of 250's mh would do it. I personally would not get anything more that the Reeflux 12k's & that is even pushing the low end on PAR but the produce very nice blues!

 

[Scooterman]

Comparisons on these lamps I mentioned.

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20733&highlight=reeflux

 

[knowcrap]

Exactly what I ended up trying to note...I actually re-read yours and my posts and just made some changes to try and make it fit vs. re-writing it all (I was feeling lazy).

You might look at those Lumenmax pendants (check out the sunlight supply website here: http://www.sunlightsupply.com/default.cfm) as these are amazing in their ability to light a tank. You should be able to get the lighting you want with 250's (there should be a sweet spot where you get both the penetration and breadth to light the entire tank) and might even be able to get away with two of these.

I still stand by recommending looking at other tanks...we just upgraded all of our lighting recently and we spent a few months looking at our options, saw what other people were doing and came up with a solution that we are very happy with...lighting can get very expensive and we wanted to make a single choice that would be something we would stick with for years.

In the end I prefer having the MH only lighting though I had to make some adjustments to handle the increase in temperature.

Knowcrap... i'm not sure if you actually read what i posted, but i currently have MH + PC like you mention and I am talking about going to all MH.

 

[sstainba]

Is there a downside to having the 14k vs. 12k ? The store I got some of these from has amazing tanks. One of them has to be every bit of 1000-1200G. He uses 20K in all of his. Everything I have is growing happily and splitting and budding and spreading... I just want to give it a little more blue to make them fluoresce some more. That's why I was thinking about 14K.

So... about this heat thing... with the light I've got now, the temp isn't a problem. But with 3x250, i dunno how that'll work. I guess if it comes down to it... we can get a chiller.

I'm not really worried about the money. Boyfriend is buying.

 

[knowcrap]

Reeflux 12K's have an amazing blue color (we're running 2x12K on the ends and 2x10K in the middle)...here is a rather lengthy and complicate review of the Reeflux 12K's: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2007/3/review. For more info on Sanjay's research Google him or look around the Advanced Aquarist's Online Magazine for more of his articles on lighting (his full name is Sanjay Joshi)...takes only a little reading for it to start making sense.

Our solution to the heat was 2 plastic clip-on fans that direct air under the light fixtures and out the rear of the hood...we're seeing only a 2 degree bump when the lights are on...$15.98 + tax was pretty easy on the wallet.

 

[sstainba]

Reeflux 12K's have an amazing blue color (we're running 2x12K on the ends and 2x10K in the middle)...here is a rather lengthy and complicate review of the Reeflux 12K's: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2007/3/review. For more info on Sanjay's research Google him or look around the Advanced Aquarist's Online Magazine for more of his articles on lighting (his full name is Sanjay Joshi)...takes only a little reading for it to start making sense.

Our solution to the heat was 2 plastic clip-on fans that direct air under the light fixtures and out the rear of the hood...we're seeing only a 2 degree bump when the lights are on...$15.98 + tax was pretty easy on the wallet.

We haven't built the canopy yet... but I had already planned to put a fan or two in there to help remove the heat.

 

[Scooterman]

Taller canopy's are easier to deal with! Lighting in place you need room to get around the top of the tank it is very nice to have that height, even if you have to put the lights set up lower but making it easier to remove them or adjust them as needed. My canopy is about 18" tall, I'll probably set-up some sort of hanging method where I can move them up if necessary to get around the top area.

 

[sstainba]

Yeah, I was planning on making one pretty tall and then have all the lights attached to a 1x4 that can be raised up if needed.