Halide Q & A

[Powdermonkey]

Well I had to buy the blueline 400w ballast to get the lumenarcs. When looking at bulbs I dont see anything about electric, good or bad. My original plan was 135/155 ballast and radiums with vho's. Do you still think the radiums are a good choice or would you recommend a different bulb? Or should I stick with the 135/155? Thanks

 

[trueperc]

Hello all, hopefully someone from the thread can help. I just bought the fixture used from a fellow reefer. There is not manufactor names on it that I can see. It is a 36in fixture with 150w metal halide, two 96w PC and 4 moon blue leds. Now my issue is that its a complete fixture everything fits right but the issue I have is that the ballast that is only for the metal halide states 250w. The 150w bulbs does fire up and stay on fine. When I first got it the bulb would flicker kalvin and in go from yellow to blue. I did change the bulb and its seems to be fine but I am really wonder how this combo will effect the life of bulb and or the ballast. Part of me is thinking of switch out the sockets ends and run a 250w de or get a different ballast like a select watt one where I and set it to 150. Should I even be concerned and have read with it being an electronic ballast the bulb with only run at 150w as its the bulb that handles the drive. Let me know, thanks.

 

[sirreal63]

Well I had to buy the blueline 400w ballast to get the lumenarcs. When looking at bulbs I dont see anything about electric, good or bad. My original plan was 135/155 ballast and radiums with vho's. Do you still think the radiums are a good choice or would you recommend a different bulb? Or should I stick with the 135/155? Thanks

The Blueline electronic is fine, many people run it with the Radium. Of course there is nothing wrong with getting the M135/155 and keeping the Blueline as a backup.

 

[sirreal63]

Hello all, hopefully someone from the thread can help. I just bought the fixture used from a fellow reefer. There is not manufactor names on it that I can see. It is a 36in fixture with 150w metal halide, two 96w PC and 4 moon blue leds. Now my issue is that its a complete fixture everything fits right but the issue I have is that the ballast that is only for the metal halide states 250w. The 150w bulbs does fire up and stay on fine. When I first got it the bulb would flicker kalvin and in go from yellow to blue. I did change the bulb and its seems to be fine but I am really wonder how this combo will effect the life of bulb and or the ballast. Part of me is thinking of switch out the sockets ends and run a 250w de or get a different ballast like a select watt one where I and set it to 150. Should I even be concerned and have read with it being an electronic ballast the bulb with only run at 150w as its the bulb that handles the drive. Let me know, thanks.

The bulb should be run with the correct ballast, it is not true that an electronic ballast will only send what the bulb needs to run. A 250 watt ballast will send 250 watts to the bulb, no matter what bulb it is. No name fixture sounds like an Odyssea variant by the description and before I used it much I would open it up and make sure the wiring is safely routed and the connections are secure. TheN use the right ballast.

 

[Powdermonkey]

The Blueline electronic is fine, many people run it with the Radium. Of course there is nothing wrong with getting the M135/155 and keeping the Blueline as a backup.

Thank you for all your help!

 

[Sparkpaul]

Hello everyone,

I currently have two 250w HQI 14k and the bulbs are over a year old, 18 months exactly. I have also 4 54w t5 ati aqua blue special.

My sps are still thriving but I'm considering changing the bulbs.

My tank size is L 150 cm/ 68" x W 80 cm/36"x H 65 cm/ 30"

Should I just replace what I got or can I go 400w and 20k radium?

Any guidance is appreciated, thank you.

 

[Dis 1]

Hi everyone,

im a newbie to halides, and i just got a Aqua Medic 250watt HQI metal halide 2x54watt t5 combo fixture with a Aqua Medic Ballast and im gonna use the XM15000k halide bulbs and im wondering what T5 bulb combo should i use to supplement the halides?

or what halide and t5 combo should i use for this fixture?

 

[cas1069]

Hi everyone,

im a newbie to halides, and i just got a Aqua Medic 250watt HQI metal halide 2x54watt t5 combo fixture with a Aqua Medic Ballast and im gonna use the XM15000k halide bulbs and im wondering what T5 bulb combo should i use to supplement the halides?

or what halide and t5 combo should i use for this fixture?

i would use the t5s for your blue antic as for what bulbs that's going to be a personal thing as different ppl like different level of blue

 

[Dis 1]

i would use the t5s for your blue antic as for what bulbs that's going to be a personal thing as different ppl like different level of blue

I was gonna use 2 blue plus, or 2 purple plus, or 2 coral plus, or 2 uvl super actinic, or 2 giessman actinic plus

 

[moondoggy4]

I pulled this DE bulb out of my giesemann infinity light and I am not sure who makes it, it says PEC LAMP MH 150/TD BLUE Made in Japan

 

[sirreal63]

PEC is Phoenix.

 

[moondoggy4]

Thanks Jack

 

[Allentown]

Newb looking to upgrade lights

Newb looking to upgrade lights

I have a problem with finding lights to fit my 60inch tank. Everything seems to come in 36inch, 48 inch and 72inch.

LED options are really limited in that length also...especially since ceiling and wal mount are not options where my tank is located (it has to be tank mounted, which eliminates fixtures like the AI's). My leathers and green star polyps have lived fine under my low power Marineland LEDs but coverage is limited since the fixture is only 5 inches wide and i spend much of my day sliding the fixture back and forth across the tank. ENOUGH! Im not really wanting to invest and 3 of these to get full coverage either.

I have been searching for the most inexpensive option that will give me a no hassle set up that will fit a 60inch tank.

Found this... They are going for about 1/3rd of what they went for 3 years ago and it only had a single cord with timer programming options for all 3 sets of lights.

My only concern is the 150w not being enough however thats as high as i can go (the darn circuit breaker already trips some times if the air is on as the same time as my pair of 300w heaters and the 54 1 watt LED lights and the 6x18watt T5s, (which i have corrected by downsizing to a pair of 250w heaters and moving the airconditioner to a different outlet. Could still cause problems if the heaters are on at the same time as both MHs and all 4 bulbs though so i might be screwed either way...... (thought maybe i could put one of the heaters on a timer where it will only be powered up at night when the MHs are off...might be feasible since the MHs give off a fair amount of heat on their own)??? We keep the house 68 during the winter and a 250 is good for +10 degrees in 90 gallons of water.....

Here is the link: http://www.amazon.com/Marineland-32...UTF8&colid=17AAVTK5NQ1T4&coliid=IW29YHI59N8IU

Edit: Should be ok on the load. I just did the math and by eliminated the 6x18+54+300 and adding back in the 150x2 +54x4 i come out with 54 more watts then what i have now. The window unit air conditioner should never (in theory), kick on at the same time both heaters are having to come on...... (we keep the house 78 in the summer)

 

[Sparkpaul]

I am in the process of replacing my current bulbs because they are 18 months old. They are 250w 14k bulbs.

Can switch to 400w 20k radium?
My tank depth is 32"
Should I stay 250w and just use 20k?

 

[moondoggy4]

What kind of ballast does Giesemann use for their 150 watt DE infinity light? Thanks in advance

 

[moondoggy4]

Allentown I would look into the Kessil lights there are few used ones for sale and you could get at least two for the price of the light you posted they use a gooseneck to mount the tank to top edge of the tank just not a euro brace or acrylic type.

 

[moondoggy4]

Allentown
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2327746
For an example this will cover a 4 foot tank you would just need one more.

 

[Allentown]

Allentown
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2327746
For an example this will cover a 4 foot tank you would just need one more.

I could get two of and put them on each side of the tank and continue to run my 18 inch Nova extreme pro T5 6 bulb system in the center (It sits on the tank perfectly when turned sideways and covers about 40 inches in a "jacobs ladder" light patterns) and even run my Marine reef ready actinics across the front five inches onf the tank.


Over kill? The ficken bulbs on the T5s are $96 bucks every 9 months but i JUST ordered a new set.....

Opinions?

 

[Allentown]

Kessils

Kessils

Follow up to the above. I like these in concent and design. I 150W Metal hallide replacement that runs on low wattage, can be replaced independantly of one another and doesnt require bulb changes (and has nice color mixing options).

I just ordered two of the A150W 10,000k and two goose neck mounting arms. I am 100% positive they will work on either side of my center 6 bulb T5 fixture. I will toy around with what bulbs to put in the center T5s ..i think the tank would look good with 100% actinics in the middle since i ordered the 10000k not the 15000k

As far as the marinelands, i may have to retire those (depending on if it gets in the way and blocks the light from the kessils. I will have to see how everything fits when they arrive.

Now the next question.....these are going to burn the crap out of my three leather corals, and green star polyps that i have (that actually seem to LIKE the low end lighting i have).

What is the game plan? Drop everything to the edges or bottom of the tank? ONly run the kessils 2 hours a day and work gradually increase duration?

 

[sirreal63]

The Kessil 150 is not a replacement for a 150 watt halide, the naming method has no relation to a MH replacement. It should be ok with your plan though.