Halide Q & A

[Joe the painter]

reflectors

reflectors

I am just trying to light a 210 tank 72long 29 high 24 wide looking to do sps. I also wanted to do supplemental lighting t5. I was looking for a reflector that had good par as the lumebrite mini I thought was good for my tank what do u think?

 

[james30ct]

Would 3 spider reflectors with 250w halides and 2 80w ati t5's be enough light for a 180g sps tank?

 

[sirreal63]

The LB will have high par in a small area, and diminish quickly towards the edges. This is ok if you raise the pendant, it will spread out that small high par area but raising the pendant and coupling it with T5's can be an issue, as can the light spill from raising it so high. The LA will give a more even coverage without having to be so high and this also makes it easier to have the T5's lower wih minimal light spill. Hamilton makes a small pendant that is very close to the LumemArc Mini.

James, spider reflectors are not very good at getting all of the light down into the tank. They will work but are not a very good option.

 

[james30ct]

Thanks. What about this light?
a 6' Sunlight Supply Maristar Reef light for sale. Fixture has 4 x 39w T5Aquablue + bulbs and 3 x 250W HQI Metal Halides with Magnetic Ballasts

 

[sirreal63]

It is a good fixture, it will run circles around spider reflectors.

 

[Joe the painter]

reflectors

reflectors

so you would recommend the Hamilton pendants that are 13x13 they do look close to the luminarc which seems to be so hard to find these days in a mogul socket and you think they would be good for a 29 inch deep tank? over the lumanbrite

 

[sirreal63]

They are pretty close to the Mini's. I have a couple Mini's and will probably never sell them, I suspect there are many who feel the same way. The height isn't a huge concern unless your aqua scape will be on the sand bed and you are using low par bulbs.

 

[beadlocked450r]

so you would recommend the Hamilton pendants that are 13x13 they do look close to the luminarc which seems to be so hard to find these days in a mogul socket and you think they would be good for a 29 inch deep tank? over the lumanbrite

I have 3 of these on my 180 that is 72x18x29 and they are really nice. I have 250w 20k radiums.

<a href="http://s422.photobucket.com/user/jasonp28/media/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_0876.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i422.photobucket.com/albums/pp302/jasonp28/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_0876.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_0876.jpg"/></a>

 

[beadlocked450r]

I dont have any current pictures of the tank with the lights on. But I can probally do it tomorrow after work. But here is a little video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALj3fmFY4u8

 

[james30ct]

Is current usa 72" fixture 3x250 with t5s any good?

 

[Joe the painter]

what kind of relectors are those the cabo or cozemel sun. beautiful tank btw love the video

 

[jacky]

I am moving away from LED. Do you think 150W hamilton cayman pendant will cover 24"x24" of my 7" deep sps frag tank with no other supplement at 20K?

 

[Jim.mer]

MH or LED

MH or LED

Alright I need some help with this. I have a 300g display 96"x30"x25" and Im thinking about selling my LED's and going with a MH/t-5 retrofit in my canopy and I wanted to get some input as to how many watts I would need to properly grow sps.

Although LED are all the Rave, I'm a firm believer in MH, You would need 4 x 250s to cover that spread but your tank would look Amazing.

 

[Jim.mer]

175 watt

175 watt

Is the 175W worth a look on a standard 180 with a mixed reef?

IMO NO, go to the 250, more choice on Bulbs and 175 just won't to it, Cheaper yes but don't waste your money on something inadequate.

 

[codyreed29]

Hello new to thread anyone used aquacave mh reflectors.

Have limited space and they are 11 by 6. Cant use the big ones take too much space

 

[jonb154]

Hey guys quick question... I have a galaxy 400 e ballast running a radium 400w 20000k, under what I think is a lumenbright reflector 24" over my 18" tall 100 gallon sps dominated tank. I say all that to say what is the normal life expectancy of this bulb, right now I'm getting just over six months, and also how far should I cut back the light cycle when I swap out bulbs, right now I run it 8 hrs a day. Jack I'd really like your opinion on this since you run radiums. Thanks in advance

 

[sirreal63]

Jon, I have never run the 400's but you should expect 9 months to a year easily based on what others have found over the years. You are over driving them, slightly, and that does have a long term impact on the bulb but it is not as severe as it is when running the HQI ballast.

That is a whole lot of bulb for an 18" tall tank. What are the tank dimensions and how many bulbs are you running over it?

 

[jonb154]

Lol it is a lot of bulb, it's the only light with a few led actinics that I came across a few years ago, but that's why I keep it so high, also the dimensions are 36" square, I didn't think a smaller light could give enough light and still cover most of the tank, I have since realized that the pendant has more of a spotlight coverage area, whereas my old lumenarc has a wider coverage area. I am thinking about putting that back on there. Wat do u think?

 

[sirreal63]

I am running a single 250 Radium on a 40x40 area but with a LumenMax Large. I would not hesitate to put the LumenArc back up in place of the spotlight LumenBrite, especially with a shallow tank, mine is shallow too, only 17" and I get great coverage.

 

[jonb154]

Yeah I keep telling myself that I need to do it but it will take some rewiring of the pendant to be able to use the galaxy ballast , so I've been a lil lazy about it lol, hey so I cut the duration by about 2 hours from 8 to 6 and the corals didn't burn up with the new bulb so I think I'm ok for now, what kind of corals do you keep in your tank?