Decisions? Decisions: coralvue & luminarc lighting

[eboonaman]

Ok I what to upgrade my lighting to dual 250 w MH
should I go with DE HQI? oR SE Mogul?
I want to go with the luminarcIII full size but The vendor sells a retro fit kit with the coralvue ballast.
according to Pierce, he ran a test and with the Luminarc III reflector running a Ice cap ballast it produced 100 par over running the coarlvue... this is with a electronic ballast.
can you and if so how hard is it to rig up a luminarc with a ice cap ballast.
also Would I be better off with a duel ballast or two single 250 w ballasts?
as you can see I a lighting dummy...
thanks

chucl

 

[cali_reef]

You are better off with two individual ballast, one goes bad you still have one left.

You will have to wire up a connector and the power wire on the icecap or Coralvue ballast, both comes with pigtails only. Try to get a female Luminarc connector when you buy the LIII, otherwise you have to either replace the entire wire with the plug or cut the plug off the pendent.

Its not hard to wire a ballast to a pendent at all, match the colors on the wires, use wire nuts after twisting the matching wires together and put some electric tape over them.

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

Chuck-- Call Tony @ Reef Exotics he sells them & will not steer you wrong. Make sure you want the full size--They are BIG.
I used 3 mini's on my 220.
Vinny

 

[woodworker1959]

HM Lighting

HM Lighting

Chuck I have been using the Coralvue 250 W with the Lumenarc mini reflectors on my 120 for the past 3 months and I love the results. I had gotten them from Tony at Reef Exotics. Its a single ended bulb with 12000K bulbs and I love the color. It really changed the whole appearance of the tank.

 

[eboonaman]

thanks for the reply's , there was no doubt in my mind about going with Tony :thumbsup:
I was really curious about swapping the coralvue with a icecap if it was really worth it.
Vinny thanks for the picture, I emailed you back. you sold me on the mini's.
chuck

 

[DEXTER SOLIS]

riding along...in the same boat with you Chuck. I have a 180 to light up, Tony did point out I can make do with two of the big boys instead of three minis, run 14k to elininate need for actinics.

 

[cali_reef]

Dexter, you are not going to cover the entire tank with two pendents, unless you like to see shadows and waste light. 14K's are dim, sure you save some electricity by not running actinics, but why have MH if you can't get good growth from your corals.

 

[DEXTER SOLIS]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8668182#post8668182 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cali_reef
Dexter, you are not going to cover the entire tank with two pendents, unless you like to see shadows and waste light. 14K's are dim, sure you save some electricity by not running actinics, but why have MH if you can't get good growth from your corals.

ok, thanks dude. are we still go for today?

 

[DgenR8]

I'm in the same boat. I want to change out my 400 watters for 250s.
I'm liking the AB 10K D/E on IceCap ballasts. I haven't checked with Tony for a price yet, but I expect it to hurt.