After a 10 year hiatus, I got back into reefing a year and a half ago, with a 60g cube. Went all 'high tech'... dosing pump with BRS 2part, Aquaticlife Halo LED... Eshopps RS100 3rd gen sump/ref with it's fancy water channel design... All this fancy stuff just isn't working for me. Slow growth rates being the primary issue.
I've been fighting calc/alk bouncing all over the place and low pH since I set the system up. Pulled the dosing pump and 2part and switched back to Kalk from my ATO, everything is solid again. Pulled the fancy sump/ref, and put in a plain Jane sump that I can actually clean once in a while. Back to simple, old school, and things are getting better.
I'm about done with my Halo. This tank is open top (I do have a screen over it), and going to stay that way, I don't want a canopy. With the room it's in, hanging a light from the ceiling would be a nightmare. I've looked at t5's, but I really just don't want a big slab of lighting over the tank.
Anybody have a Hamilton Bimini Sun reflector? How's it working out for you? How heavy is it? I'm thinking that I can come up with a way to mount the Bimini sun from the HALO mount I have, as long as it's not built like a brick.
I'm just tired of screwing with it, and I _KNOW_ that a 14k 250w DE halide will give me the growth rates I'm looking for. Yeah, it'll be higher electric usage, and yeah, I've gotta put in a new bulb every once in a while, but having used halides in the past, it's a known quantity.
On my old tank with halides, it was all enclosed. This was a much larger system, with 3x 400w halides, on old PFO magnetic ballasts. I had to run a chiller to keep the heat under control. I'm hoping that with this setup, open top, pendant hanging with air all around it, that the heat won't be so bad. Really don't have the room for a chiller, I'm hoping that a fan will do the trick. Anyone else have a 250w pendant over an open 60g cube? How's the heat issue?
Room shot, just to show why hanging a light would be a challenge...
