Halide Q & A

Light schedule

Light schedule

Hello everyone! I have a question and need an aswer....

What should my light schedule be? As of now i have the MH 2x250w on for 7 hours from 2pm-7pm...T5's go on from 7pm-11pm then the moon light LED's go on from 11 or 12am to 5am....from 5am till 2pm the T5's are back on. This is what i have in a 125 gallon reef

Setup: CORALIFE 48 AQUALIGHT PRO 250Wx2 MH, (4)True Actinic 03 Blue compact fluorescent and (4)470 nm lunar LED

Do i have to have the aquarium completely dark at all during the day or are do i keep the same schedule I have now. It seems to be doing really well but i guess i really want to know if i am suppose to completely turn the light off at any point during a 24 hour period. Thanks for all you guys/gals help!

Jacob Rodriguez
 
I have a 75 gallon tank with 90+#'s of Fiji rock in it. First reef tank, always had fish only tanks prior.

I purchased a newer used Coralife 48" Metal Halide Retrofit setup. It has 2 150W 10K MH, 2 True 03 Blue Flors, and 4 Blue LED Moons.

The MH bulbs are 6-8" off the surface of the water. I don't know what exactly I want to keep yet, so I am looking for some pointers on what corals I can keep with this light. However, what should be the cycle time for the MH lights? Right now, they come on at 0630 after 30 minutes of just the blues on, then I swithch the MH's off at 1930 and then the blues at 2130.

To long?

Thanks!
 
The halides should be on about 7 hours and I would set the T5's to come on an hour before and go off an hour after the halides.

As far as what you can keep, it depends on the bulbs you have. In a 75 you should be ok the 150's but coral placement will depend on what the bulbs are. 10K bulbs and you will be ok with any coral, but some Acro's will need to be higher up. LPS and softies can be on the sand bed but I would keep the LPS as close to directly under the bulbs as possible.

Also, this post should be in the Reef Discussion or the Lighting forum. :-)
 
Last edited:
No biggie Justin and I understand how it happens, we were all new here once. :-) Be sure and post some pics of the setup, pics are always welcome and encouraged.
 
I had some 250 watte DE bulbs that occasionally I had to actually touch to get it lit. It may have been a loose contact. This was yrs ago. Now I have a new 175 that is doing the same thing. It can set for hrs. and If i just touch the bulb it lights up. Everthing is grounded good. The ballast is only 3 months old and the bulb is new. The previous bulb is only 3 months old too. I am going to put it all on the bench tonight and eliminate the fixture by securing the wires directly to the bulb.
I have done a lot of searching the web on this issue and found nothing. If you have heard of this please reply. I will send a beer!
 
OkStudent said:
I had some 250 watte DE bulbs that occasionally I had to actually touch to get it lit. It may have been a loose contact. This was yrs ago. Now I have a new 175 that is doing the same thing. It can set for hrs. and If i just touch the bulb it lights up. Everthing is grounded good. The ballast is only 3 months old and the bulb is new. The previous bulb is only 3 months old too. I am going to put it all on the bench tonight and eliminate the fixture by securing the wires directly to the bulb.
I have done a lot of searching the web on this issue and found nothing. If you have heard of this please reply. I will send a beer!
Click to expand...

I've had a similar issue with my 250W's. Although they won't always fire up when I turn on the fixture, after a few minutes they often will. Do yours just stay off or will they eventually power on?

-Russ
 
This one will stay off forever. I have let it go for a week on vacation with a cam on it. I have heard of them eventually coming on. Thanks for the quick reply
 
sneaton said:
what is good frag tank lighting? tank is only 12 inches deep,48 long,24 wide
Click to expand...

Well, a lot of it will depend on your budget. If budget is no concern, how about 2x 150W's and a 2x actinic system for sunrise / sunset?

Something like this.

What's great about the AquaticLife series is that you can point the MH's at the corals that will need more light than others.

My $0.02.

-Russ
 
AVDweeb, I really did not describe it well. THis is weird. Here is what I do to get it lit. I grab the rectangle reflector with one hand and slide the UV filtering glass off with the other. This is while the ballast is trying to fire the bulb. Then I grab the bulb between my thumb and forefinger and it usually lights off. If it doesn't I keep doing that or unplug it and plug it back in and touch it some more. Only once or twice out of about 15 times I could ot get it to light.
I know you are not supposed to leave prints on these bulbs but who cares with this junk!:fun2::fun2:
 
The dealer says I need a different type of ballast. This one is for single ended bulbs. I am going to try a 150 double ended first, if it does not work I will try a 175 single ended. My 250 same type of ballast is running DE's fine, but i have read on some of the other 175 ballasts they will run a 150 DE and a 175 SE. This is what I get for trying to save a little $ by using a industrial ballast.
 
I'm designing a 48Wx24Lx13H shallow sps/ fish only tank. Its shallow but the catch is i want the fixture hung (make space for mangroves to one end, coral on the other). Anyone think around one and a half-two feet over the tank is too much and will it take away too much from the sps? I'm considering a 36", 150w, 14k HQI fixture with 4, 39w t5's, might bump it up to 2, 150w HQI.
 
I need some help deciding on a light for my new tank..its a 24x24x20 cube, and I plan on mainly an LPS and softie tank..with maybe a few SPS in there..would a MH and T5 combo be overkill for that tank? Or would it be alright? I really want to try a MH out, just because I've never used one before and would like to. What do you guys think?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

griss
  • Sticky
Sources for Metal Halide Bulbs, Ballasts & Fixture
Replies
13
Views
1K
oreo57
oreo57
S
Its been a while.
Replies
8
Views
260
sleeperls
S
OrionN
Anemone Show-off
Replies
11
Views
492
OrionN
OrionN
Reefing102
Metal Halide ballast question (overdriving HQI bulbs)
Replies
4
Views
610
ct_vol
ct_vol
five.five-six
Halide Hoarders unite!
2
Replies
24
Views
2K
Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Back
Top