Halide Q & A

The deeper a tank is, the less light penetration occurs the deeper you go. For a 24" tank, typically a 250W is suggested. Below 24", quite often you'll hear 400W is suggested. Spectrum also has an impact due to certain wavelengths, like your blues, will penetrate deeper. MH lamps in the 14K and 20K have greater blue spectrum output.
 
How many hours could I run a 250w radium halide daily if its my only light on the tank. My tank is a 50g cube, 24x24x20. How long daily if SPS, or LPS?
 
That will be a question for those with more experience. We have a hybrid MH/T5. We only run the MH for about 5 hours per day.
 
I will be using Radium 400 watt for 6 hours a day. Can anyone tell me how long I can use the bulb before needing to change it using electronic ballast for both the 400 watt setting and then the Super Lumen setting? I am growing SPS corals.
 
I am sure this has been answered somewhere in the 41 pages.
I am looking to get a MH setup.
I have a 150 Gallon 24x24x48
I want to keep to be able to keep all corals(probably want but if I see something I want to be able to put it in tank and not worry about lighting)
Do I need a 400watt setup with 10k bulbs?
What are the better reflectors?
Thanks in advance
 
amberjade53 said:
I am sure this has been answered somewhere in the 41 pages.
I am looking to get a MH setup.
I have a 150 Gallon 24x24x48
I want to keep to be able to keep all corals(probably want but if I see something I want to be able to put it in tank and not worry about lighting)
Do I need a 400watt setup with 10k bulbs?
What are the better reflectors?
Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

250w lamps will be more than enough for you to keep anything you want anywhere in the tank. Are you running a canopy to mount this in, or are you looking for a fixture to go over the top of the tank?
 
Should I wait until Hamilton has the m80 ballasts back in stock or is there an option thats just as good for 250se radiums?
 
The Luxcore ballast is a good alternative to the M80. The M80 ballast will run the 250w Radium at 330w and the Luxcore on the HQI or "Super Lumens" setting will run it at 300w. Unless you're trying to get every bit of PAR out of the lamp just go with the Luxcore.
 
Jeremy B. said:
The Luxcore ballast is a good alternative to the M80. The M80 ballast will run the 250w Radium at 330w and the Luxcore on the HQI or "Super Lumens" setting will run it at 300w. Unless you're trying to get every bit of PAR out of the lamp just go with the Luxcore.
Click to expand...

I purchased 4 - LuxCore 400W ballasts on 29 November 2015 for $490. I just had 1 fail and another on its way out since put into service on 5 December 2015. I purchased them to drive 2 Dual 400W Hamilton Cebu Sun fixtures because I wanted to drive Radiums. Well, one just continually pops its breaker and another doesn't reliably start its lamp. I've tested the ballasts with both Hamilton 14K and Radium 20K lamps. Both respond the same. The stock M59 magnetic ballasts that came with the Hamilton Cebu Sun fixtures work perfectly with the Hamilton 14K lamps. Obviously I can't test the M59 with the Radiums with them being pulse start. I've sent correspondence to CoralVue regarding this, we'll see how that goes. Regardless, a 50% reliability/failure rate in 1 1/2 months is ridiculous.
 
Going to be setting up a 220 72x30x24. So, 30" deep. Was looking at a 6ft Hamilton Cebu Sun 250w w/4 T-5's. Will the 250's be enough or should I consider the 400w's? Tank will be mixed reef.

Thanks!
 
amberjade53 said:
I am sure this has been answered somewhere in the 41 pages.
I am looking to get a MH setup.
I have a 150 Gallon 24x24x48
I want to keep to be able to keep all corals(probably want but if I see something I want to be able to put it in tank and not worry about lighting)
Do I need a 400watt setup with 10k bulbs?
What are the better reflectors?
Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

I have that tank, its actually 120 gallons, not 150. 250 watt halides are more than fine.
 
cybrsufr said:
Not really enough light. For a 24" deep tank you should have ideally 250W or 400W. Anything over 27" should have 400W. With a 150 you could probably keep some LPS and softies, but SPS would really struggle and probably not have much color to them except for brown and green
Click to expand...

so what tank size would you recommend for a 150W ? would it be overkill on a jbj 12 nano ?
 
Hey guys just looking for some advice on a MH setup. I purchased a used light to run over my frag tank. After checking with a Par meter it doesnt seem to be running the Phoenix 14k 150w DE bulb i bought for it to it full potential. So long story short can anyone recomend something that will work. The frag tank is only 15g tank and 12" deep.
 
I have 40breeder 36x16x16 one 250mh 2x96wpc actinic I think is too much but everything seems ok run the my 6hr run pc 9-10hr 420nm led strip night light. My color says 20k more like 14k
 
Hey everyone, I am wondering if anyone knows what happened to XM bulbs? I am running 3x400w XM 20k's and it is time for replacement, but I can't find them anywhere!!! I found reference to them being discontinued on one storefront, but after hours and hours of Googling I can't find any other reference to them being discontinued or anything. If you go to the XM website it looks like everything is still business as usual.

So... does anyone know of someplace where we can still purchase XM 400w mogul bulbs?? Or do we need to find a replacement? I may have to switch to Radiums, since they are still readily available everywhere as far as I can see. But I have M59 ballasts so they would run sub-optimally in my system.
 
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