Lighting opinions wanted

[FleeVT]

Long time reader...
I am in planning stages for a 75 reef tank. The stand and canopy are going to be DIY. Before starting on the canopy, I wanted to get some opinions on lighting. I will no doubt start with the usual lower maintenance type stuff, but would like to make sure I have adequate lighting to support a future SPS hobby.

I was thinking 2x175 MH supplemented with T5 or PC actinics. This was based on a 5-8 watt per gallon reference point and similar setups I've read about on the forum.

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. Preferred brands and types (for ballasts and bulbs), color temperature, kits versus "build it all".

 

[ReefWreak]

I suggest going to 250w if you plan to go to SPS dominated in the future, but 175 will work if you keep them high. I've had great luck with a coralvue electronic ballast, which I got inexpensivly from a fellow FMASer, so go for what you can afford. The CoralVue and Icecap ballasts have good reputations. If you're running supplemental lighting, then maybe you can go with whiter/yellower 10k bulbs to get great growth, and have the supplements add the actinic colors. Good bulb brands are XM for 10ks, Reeflux for 12k or 10k bluer bulbs, Hamilton for 14k, Radium for 20k (not sure if they work with electronic ballasts). 10k is whiter usually, 20k is bluer, and inbetween is inbetween. For more info, check out cnidarianreef.com/lamps.cfm

Also, for supplemental lighting, there was a thread a while back with a debate between T5 and VHO, and there was no decided victor. Personally I would suggest VHO because I've had great luck with them, but I'm sure that Rogger and some others would suggest going T5. If you go T5, just make sure to get decent reflectors (the IceCaps are the best I believe).

Good luck, and we're here to help!

 

[racermike27]

Wow that was a great sum up!!!

Anyways on my 90 SPS tank I run the following:

2x250W SE EVC 10K's on Electronic Ballasts.
2X54W T5 True Actinics Sunlight Supply TEK retro

Good growth with this setup.

I have never done VHO's so I can't comment on these.

HTH

-Mike-

 

[racermike27]

By the way I have tried the Hami 14ks it is an excellent bulb!

I did try the EVC 14ks as well but they were just way too blue.

-Mike-

 

[FleeVT]

ReefWreak -
Thanks for the response! Not sure what you meant by high; is that height above the tank? As I am in the canopy design stage, this is exactly the kind of input I'm looking for. How high should the lights sit above the water? Should 2x250w sit higher than 2x175 MHs?

I was thinking the same thing as far as colors: use whiter MHs for growth and supplements for actinic colors. To be sure I understood the Lighting Forum, electronic ballasts with a Mogul socket will support any and all Single Ended MH I could want?

Thanks again for the info. Wait, one more question. Any experience with the dual ballasts? Cheaper than buying two, but my concern is the failure mode. Would both outputs be dead?

 

[ReefWreak]

FleeVT, sorry, I meant keeping the SPS higher in the tank with a lower wattage bulb (<250w) and keep them in the top 1/3. I'm glad I could help.

As far as keeping the lights over the water, the usual suggestion is 6-8" or so. Mine are like 4-5" but havn't caused any problems. I don't think that you should really keep a higher wattage bulb any higher, because the whole reason that they're not on top of the water, regardless of the wattage, is because a rogue splash from a fish jumping or some other tank phenomenon could crack the bulb from cooling it too quickly. Also I've noticed that the higher up and more protected the bulb is, the less salt and other gunk you get on it (i guess that's kind of obvious).

I've personally run white 10k bulbs with 440w of actinic blue VHOs, and it gives great blue/purple coloration (I know people don't want purple because it's unnatural and blah blah blah, but I'm happy with it). The best growth would be from 5500k or 6500k bulbs, but they would look like someone urinated in your tank, probably even with actinics, but I'm not sure on that...

No you cannot run any wattage bulb on an e-ballast just because it fits in the same socket. And I'm not sure if 175, 250, and 400 all have the same socket size to begin with. They very well may, but I'm not sure. I believe that DE (Not necessarily HQI, HQI is a different type of ballast/bulb setup, so try not to call DEs HQIs) 175 and 250 are different sizes, and DE 400s are hard to come by. If you swapped out the ballast, you would be able to run different wattage bulbs on the same mogul provided that the mogul base is the same size for all those bulbs. I'm almost 100% positive that 1000w bulbs have a larger mogul base.

I do not believe that both outputs would die together, that they would individually die, but I'm not sure of that. I tried to look it up on CoralVue's site, and in their manual, and I couldn't find info on it. Maybe email one of the company's tech support?

Good luck!
BTW If you need any help, let me know, and when I'm down from school, I'm always happy to lend a hand, or help you plan things out, or anything.

OT: Mike, I forgot to ask about that Maxi-Mod at the swap! Dern! Have you gotten rid of it yet? PM me. Thx.

 

[FleeVT]

Thanks for all of the great info, Mike and ReefWreak.

but they would look like someone urinated in your tank[/B]

Sounds like college hasn't changed much at all. I did not mean any wattage bulb on any e-ballast, I meant any branded bulb (with wattage rated the same as ballast). The lighting forum made mention of Probe start, Pulse start, etc. and I was just confirming
that an e-ballast could fire most any light I would want. I'll try and track down some for info on the double ballast.

Thanks again!

 

[nyvp]

The big problem is going to be heat and cost to run when you move up to the 250's.
Also use a higher end reflector like lumenarc or lumenmax they make a big difference

 

[racermike27]

ReefWreak sorry but I let go both Maxi Mods already. I was waiting to hear from you but others were askling so I sold it to them instead. Sorry about that.

FleeVT for the dual ballasts I am pretty sure that they work independent(sp.) of each other. As long as the ballast has two powercords, switches and sockets I think you should be ok.
That was the way my Current PCs worked at least. Electronic ballasts will fire any SE bubls and you will not have to worry about the probe or pulse start stuff.
The HQIs can also be fired by an electronic but the downfall here is that the bulbs will not be as bright as if it were to be run on an HQI ballast. The HQI ballasts are magnetic and these will drive the bulb a little brighter since there are more "mechanical".

I keep my Halides about 8-9 inches off the water. I have no problem with growth or bleaching either. I can leave some lower light corals on the sand bed and still get good growth. My tank is also around 24" deep. (standard 90G)

For firing bulbs as long as the bulb watage matches that of the ballast then you should be good to go.

-Mike-