175 or 250 watt mh
- Thread starter kenc87
- Start date
Ken, this may help and it may not. 175's and 150's are pretty much equal in the light delivered to the tank. Depending on the bulb you may fry corals directly under the fixture so acclimate accordingly. The reflector you use can have a huge impact on how the light reaches the tank. Plan your reflector based on the coverage you want in the tank.
I borrowed our club's par meter a few years back and did some tests with the 150 watt Radium and the 10K XDE, the results were very good.
The ballast is a single 150 watt HQI Reeflex Cube (M81). I tested two different bulbs, the first number is a 20K Radium and the second number is a 10K XDE, both in a LumenArc III Mini, if there is only one number, it is the Radium as I did not test all areas with the 10K. 40x40x17" tall pentagon, rock arranged in a 24-30" cove. Most corals reside around the perimeter of the cove. Most of the corals are 18-20" in height from the bulb.
Par at the glass shield was 1200 for the Radium and 2200 for the 10K
Par at the water surface, 9" from the bulb, Radium at 780 and the 10K at 1900. Remember, this is a single fixture, but it is a good one for spreading out the light.
As you see, on a shallow tank the 150's supply enough light to keep anything you want, for a 12" tall frag tank, you can cook corals. Currently I use a pair of the 150 watt Radiums in the LAIII Mini's, using 10K Ushio's I was bleaching SPS even with reflectors raised high enough to put the bulbs 24-30" from the corals. I switched back to the Radiums a little while back, I got enough growth from the 10K to satisfy my needs.
This is the tank currently with the pair of Radiums, white balance is off but it is a cheap camera.
It will help if you tell us the size of the frag tank and what the lighting equipment is.
I borrowed our club's par meter a few years back and did some tests with the 150 watt Radium and the 10K XDE, the results were very good.
The ballast is a single 150 watt HQI Reeflex Cube (M81). I tested two different bulbs, the first number is a 20K Radium and the second number is a 10K XDE, both in a LumenArc III Mini, if there is only one number, it is the Radium as I did not test all areas with the 10K. 40x40x17" tall pentagon, rock arranged in a 24-30" cove. Most corals reside around the perimeter of the cove. Most of the corals are 18-20" in height from the bulb.
Par at the glass shield was 1200 for the Radium and 2200 for the 10K
Par at the water surface, 9" from the bulb, Radium at 780 and the 10K at 1900. Remember, this is a single fixture, but it is a good one for spreading out the light.
As you see, on a shallow tank the 150's supply enough light to keep anything you want, for a 12" tall frag tank, you can cook corals. Currently I use a pair of the 150 watt Radiums in the LAIII Mini's, using 10K Ushio's I was bleaching SPS even with reflectors raised high enough to put the bulbs 24-30" from the corals. I switched back to the Radiums a little while back, I got enough growth from the 10K to satisfy my needs.
This is the tank currently with the pair of Radiums, white balance is off but it is a cheap camera.
It will help if you tell us the size of the frag tank and what the lighting equipment is.
