250w or 400w mh?

[Grace's Dad]

I am slowly purchasing items for the new tank before the tax refund comes.
The new tank will be 72x24x29 - looking at 210 AGA.
I was planning on using four mogul sockets, two on the outer ends and two in the middle facing the ends. Do I need the 400w or will it be overkill. The cut-outs on the 3ft reflectors sit about two inches in from the ends so the lights would be about 30 inches apart.

 

[Hobbes8017]

I have asked the exact same question about the Oceanic 215 I am getting. The jury is deadlocked and both sides are standing their ground.

Some say I need 400 to get through that deep of water...

Others say I can just use 250 and put anything that needs the bright light higher in the tank.

I am leaning toward the 400, just to be safe... But when it comes time to purchase, I will probably like the price of 250 much more!

 

[Nanook]

250's will work fine.

On my 470g cube tank for all acropora, I am going with 400's.

On my 375g soft tank, I am going with 175's.

Both tanks are 30" deep.

dave

 

[Goalie66]

I have 250s on my 30" tank and just put the sps about midway up in the tank and everything is doing good.

Tom

 

[chadfarmer]

250w

i will be honest in the summer you might need a chiller with the 400

 

[maxxII]

I'd go 250's and save money from less expensive electrical bills...
Less energy used and less heat which translates to less chiller on time. Which means less energy usage.

Sanjay Joshi stated 250 DE's used 2/3 the power of a 400 SE yet delivered 5/6 the energy. He also stated he would have gone to 250 DE's but he had recently replaced his old 400 watt system with a brand new 400 watt system.

With all that in mind, I'd suggest going with 250 watt SE's run by Electronic Ballasts. You will have to purchase a ballast per reflector, but my rationale is this:

1...E-ballasts are lighter in weight and cost less to ship
2..they use less energy overall, (not enough to reasonably justify buying them, but they do use less)
3...they can be run with almost any bulb. This way, if your SE's arent doing what you want, all you will need to do is buy new reflectors and go DE. That will definately give you the intensity to reach the bottom of a 30 inch deep tank.

ASFAIK the ony bulb that cannot be run on E-ballasts are the XM XDE's. They truly need HQI ballasts.

This is just my opinion...

Nick

 

[DrBDC]

The ARO 150/175's will run 175 se and 150 de's but not overdrive them like the HQI's will. 175's will give a nice mixed reef tank on a 24" deep tank. That's with placing sps 1/2 way and higher but shrooms, softies, and leathers will do well below. My yellow fiji leather likes to be up high. With a deeper tank I would imagine 250's would do well if you are going with a mixed reef and if you want to focus on just sps I'd go 400's. These opinions are based on using XM10,000K's though and they put out a very high par. If I were to want 20,000K's I'd go 250's even on a 24" deep and probably 400's on a 30". When my corals are where I want them and I go higher K bulbs I reserve the right to change those opinions.

 

[Grace's Dad]

I was going to go with the blue wave VII's which are HQI. The difference between the 250's and 430's would be about $100 for two.I don't really want to have to upgrade later.

 

[chadfarmer]

i have seen a lot of people upgrade to 400 and seen some go back to 250s because of electric and heat


what reflectors are you using?

how high from the water?

what are you going to keep in the tank?

 

[maxxII]

I bought the BlueWave IV's which are essentially a pretty blue box and plug for an IceCap E-Ballast. However, IceCap will only give you a 3 year warranty on the ballast, SS will give you a 5 year warranty on the same ballast in their blue box. As a bonus, their ReefOptix III reflector is plug and play with their ballasts. No wiring or conversion necessary. Should I decide to switch to SE bulbs in the future, (thinking about it actually) all I will need to do is buy two ReefOptix I reflectors for about $105.00 each.

Nick

 

[chadfarmer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6929886#post6929886 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by maxxII
I bought the BlueWave IV's which are essentially a pretty blue box and plug for an IceCap E-Ballast. However, IceCap will only give you a 3 year warranty on the ballast, SS will give you a 5 year warranty on the same ballast in their blue box. As a bonus, their ReefOptix III reflector is plug and play with their ballasts. No wiring or conversion necessary. Should I decide to switch to SE bulbs in the future, (thinking about it actually) all I will need to do is buy two ReefOptix I reflectors for about $105.00 each.

Nick

i remember markk96 saying the bluewave have a 3 year warranty now

 

[maxxII]

If it is, they havent changed their website......


Sunlight Supply Blue Wave IV Electronic Ballast

Nick

 

[labragg1]

I've been using 250 mh's on my current 120, and will continue to use them on my 220 that I am getting ready to set up.
I have been able to get by with just fans and no chiller which is a big plus to me. I also like the lower power consumption and wide variety of bulbs available.
JMO--hope that helps.