Light rail, mover etc? OKC area?

[captbunzo]

You took the words right out of my mouth, Charlie!

 

[Prater]

I confess,

I was really looking into purchasing one with a 250. I decided that the T-5 was a better choice after looking at Pauls tank. It should work fine for you Kyle. I believe most are rated for severe commercial duty. I would just worry about the salt creep that may affect them. Moisture will not hurt them.

 

[Matrexz]

I just said be careful never once did I say anything about a greenhouse. I just know what constant saltwater abuse can do to stuff. We have to put our new part here at mercruiser through endurance tests, and I was just saying be cautious.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8812732#post8812732 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by VCoo71
quite the humidy source? a greenhouse full of plants would have a lot more humidity IMO then a vented canopy would

charlie

 

[kpk]

Paul just a quick question, why is a 400w more than needed for a 30' tall tank? Over 24" or so 250's don't have that much punch down low. Ask Kevin his 250s sucked with 10k bulbs on the bottom of his 105g 29" tall tank with about 6" of sand. 30" is quite a ways to penetrate.

I have looked into t5s and I can't afford neither a 14 bulb fixture plus bulbs, and then replacing them once a year. Just not feasible for me. Even retros would cost a ton.

Believe me I have done alot of reading on this and from others experience that have had great luck with them. It give even growth on corals, as Dugg described.

I also have a Aquacontroller II so, and will probably do as Steven said, set the timers to run maybe 30 seconds an hour or some on a 12hr day. That schedule's not set in stone. I will have to play with it...

 

[captbunzo]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8815290#post8815290 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kpk
Paul just a quick question, why is a 400w more than needed for a 30' tall tank? Over 24" or so 250's don't have that much punch down low. Ask Kevin his 250s sucked with 10k bulbs on the bottom of his 105g 29" tall tank with about 6" of sand. 30" is quite a ways to penetrate.

What sort of corals are you planning on keeping? And can you, perhaps, choose to keep corals higher up (in the middle or top of the tank) that will require more light? And then can you choose to keep corals lower that will require less light? I believe that utilizing these methods, we can probably get away with burning less watts over our tanks.

And, for the record, I am using a 250W Metal Halide over my 30 inch tall 47g tank in Dallas. My sand bed is about 2-3 inches. And I am doing exactly as above - SPS corals (one ORA blue Tort Acros and some Montis) up in the mid-high tank region. And less demanding stuff (an LPS and Zoantids) down lower.

I may be wrong. But I really do believe that we put too much light over tanks when we start using 400W MH bulbs. IMHO, overkill.

Take this on to clams - the ones that are more light loving (T. maxima and T. crocea) are rock clams and can be place higher up, in the rockwork. And the lower light ones also happen to be the sand clams (T. derasa & T. squamosa) and can be placed down low.

Just my opinion, of course. I am just always a fan of finding ways to be more energy efficient with our tanks, and more practical.

Whatever the case, I am sure it will work out. And if you do the light rail, then I am anxious to see pics, etc...