lighting a 60g cube. please help

D

Deranged-Jester

New member
hey all,
this will be my 4th saltwater tank. 1 tank is a 180g tank with a picasso, emperor and lunare. and the other 3 tanks were smaller soft / LPS tanks. i just recently purchased a 60g cube 24x24x24 with a center overflow and want to try my luck in SPS. all my other tanks were lit be either PC or T5 and im retarded when it comes to halides. with only 24" to work with there is no way i can get enough out of t5 or VHO so i need to step into the lovely world of halides. i was thinking a 400w pendant would be enough for the tank because i read that halides cover a 24"x24" area. and thats exactly what i have. my question being whats the diff between mogul and HQI apart from one screws in and is way cheaper =) whats the benefit to HQI halides. and what would you suggest. thx in advance
-Jason
 
I've often pondered about getting a 60G cube myself and thought much about the lighting I'd put into it. I'd go with a 250W HQI DE bulb and these are my reasons why. First of all, the orientation of the bulb matters to me. Instead of a vertical angled bulb whose light gets dispersed downward, I feel I'm getting more of a "direct blast" w/ the horizontal bulb. Your tank is only 24"x24", 250W will penetrate all the way down to the bottom, but unless you plan on keeping SPS corals from the bottom of the tank all the way up to the top, I don't think a 400W would be necessary. 4 inches from the top of the water in a 20g, 50g, 100g, 180g is still 4" from the top so with that...technically a 175W would be sufficient if you only keep corals in a certain area. Just a few ways to play with the setup, hth.
 
id like to keep clams and perhaps a couple monti's towards the bottom.....another question...for the price of a 250w hqi pendant. i could do two retro mogul 250's....could you do a 6700 or 10k and a 20k and get the same effect at daylights and actinics?
 
Heat becomes a factor for you if you'd like to do that. I'm just not sure if 24"x24' qualifies for enough space to put in 2 bulbs. I would only do that on tanks 3ft and above where I'd stagger the bulbs so the 20000K looks like a deeper end, and 10000K for the shallower part. If you're willing to do 2 lights, I'd go 10000K bulb plus actinics.
 
a 250 would be plenty, I agree with sunny, 250w se in a luminarc, unless the bulb you want is very low par (very innefficient 20k possibly?) in that case a 400w se in a lumiarc.

-John-
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7290819#post7290819 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SunnyX
A 250w SE in a Lumenarc III reflector would be perfect.
Click to expand...

Ditto. Seems to be the best reflector going, and ideal for your application.

And ditto on the JB quotes. Nice work SunnyX.

...cause whatcha see is whatcha get... hit me now!
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7291036#post7291036 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Deranged-Jester
im still trying to decide between the 250w and the 400w. i want clams and sps as close to the bottom as humanly possible =)

is this the right reflector? http://www.aquariausa.com/Scripts/prodView.asp?idProduct=124

and also what ballast would you use? for 250w and 400w
Click to expand...

With a 250, you'll be able to keep croceas on the sand.

I've got a 58 gallon (36x18x22, so similar) and in the middle 24" of the tank, I can keep pretty much anything. On the sides, I have to be a little selective, but its still good for everything but the most light demanding creatures.
 
on a 60g cube i'd go with a 400w HQI ballast, and put a SE radium bulb in a lumenarc reflector. only thing is you gota change the radium bulb every 4-6months.

i'm gonna do a 250w HQI ballast with a radium bulb in a LAIII reflector over a ~40cube'ish.

but definitely get a lumenarc reflector for a cube. you can benefit greatly from the light coming down at spread out angles, rather than just a straight down blast of light from a DE.

:smokin:
 
from what i am understanding, you "can" use an HQI ballast on SE bulbs, but it overdrives the bulbs tremendously, much more than a standard magnetic ballast. i think i read on a ballast/bulb performance article somewhere, that a 250w HQI ballast ran closer to about 330w. based on that, you can only imagine how much wear and tear it would put on SE bulbs.

standard magnetic ballast will not fire a radium bulb. And electronic ballast such as icecap, underdrive the bulbs a tad (such as radium). and the bulbs will look way more blue and less intense than they do on an HQI (less blue, more intense).

i did read something about a pulse start ballast, but dont think many people use them. anyone go into more detail about a pulse start ballast w/ radium?
 
You could run the 400, but it seems overkill to me. Unless you want to run a 20k bulb.

I run a ROIII pendant w/a Pheonix bulb over mine. Spread and penetration is perfect.
 
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