Lighting question...

DMBillies

DMBillies

Active member
We have 2 250w halides that we got with a new 92 corner bow tank we picked up last night. We're worried about the heat coming off of the halides being too much since we don't have a chiller (and can't afford to get one now that we bought the tank, go figure.) Can we get away with using just one of the halides since it's more of a "round" tank than normal? The tank is going to be predominantly softies.

If not, does anyone know of any good deals on any T-5's (or have any they're looking to get rid of??
 
The 92 corner is hard to light. C_stowers has one and has 2 halides and some PC's to light it. The halides get the bulk of the tank, and the pc's get the front most curvy part. I think it would be quite dark over most of the tank with only one halide.
 
FWIW I ran 2 250's over a 75 for quite a while without a chiller. When I upgraded to your tank I added two Mag 9's and I had to get a chiller. If the 250's are pendants you shouldn't have to get a chiller IMO if you use a couple of fans across the surface. If you have to put them in a hood you might get away with it with a few fans but that's iffy. Also since yall keep your house fairly cool (if I remember correctly) that should help. I also agree that that tank is very hard to light and 2 bulbs would work better than one but I have never had to light a corner. Maybe Chris will chime in.

Chris
 
The halides are retrofits, but I wasn't planning on putting a hood on the tank. I was going to build a box (possibly with the top off) to keep the reflectors and sockets in and just hang that over the tank. I have to look into my options but I also thought about running some VHO's somehow in there to get some nice actinics. More to the point, the halide ballast is going to have to go under the tank and I'm worried about the amount of heat that it is going to produce (in addition to the lights). I thought about running wires to a nearby closet, but they aren't long enough and there is not a plug in or near there, so I'd have to run 4 wires into the closet and it would be an eyesore. I the ballast box wasn't such a beast I would think about putting it up with the bulbs and just make that bigger, but those things are so heavy I don't trust it.

I realized that the corners bows were a bit hard to light, but I think they look awesome and a corner tank was really the only option for the location. So, I'll figure something out. Definitely open to suggestions.
 
Assuming those are magnetic ballasts they get HOT so you will want to figure out somewhere else besides under the tank. Possibly on a shelf on the wall or in a well ventilated cabinet beside the tank?

Those tanks do look very cool and present some unique oppourtunities:)

Chris
 
Chris brings up a very good point about the ballast(s). They create a lot of heat and I think even the manufacturers don't recommend putting them under a tank. Besides the heat you are very close to water and you know the old saying electric and water don't mix. Also they need air movement to cool them down a little or they can over heat.

For the lights what I was thinking is if you had pendants you could hang them and position them any way you want. You could do the same thing if you built a box for them but it wouldn't be as easy to move them around. I would also recommend a fan or two to cool the tank. Run them over the water to push the hot air away from the water. a lot of people point the fans at the water which does no good other than spraying water. If you do put the ballast in the stand you will need a chiller to cool the tank. I like those tanks but they are a pain in the neck for lighting. The other question I would have is since you were thinking about putting the ballast in the stand then you are running sumpless?
 
What pumps will be running in the system? I think the pumps need to be taken into account as well. My pumps put out as much if not more heat than my lights. I am running 2 175Mh over a 3 ft long 65 gallon. They are setup retro fit in a canopy with the variable speed icecaps fans on the ends of the canopy. If I went to 250mh I would need a chiller. I stay right at the max temp I would want.

One light though is going to leave large shadows on the ends of the tank imo. This of course depends on how high you keep the lights from the water though.

2x 250watt is abit more than what is really needed for softies I would think. If I could do my lights over I would put mine in pendants. Then I would cut wholes in the top of my canopy and have the pendents sit on top of the canopy shining down into the tank. This would keep the heat exhaust from the lights out of the canopy.

For your ballast can you not solder in a longer cord? Luckly I have icecap electronic ballasts which seem to run fairly cool. I keep them under a small stand I built togo next to my tank holding all the plug outlets and such.
 
Is it possible to simply hang the ballast on the outside of the stand. I hung my ballast on the back of my stand. I know the corner stand is built different then mine. Might be an option.
 
IMO.... if you run your ballasts far enough away and ONLY use external pumps or maybe some very low wattage submersibles (no mags) and make sure you have good ventilation in your hood, temp isnt an issue.
I think pumps dump way more heat into the water than most people realize. A mag 9.5 is almost like having a 100w heater on all the time, a mag 24 uses 264 watts.

My house hit 79-80 this summer and I still never had a temp swing more than 1.5 degrees to 81.8. I do have my controller set to kill 2 of my MH's if the temp hits 82.5, just in case

Thats my 2 cents anyway...
 
Thanks for all of the input from everyone. I probably could lengthen the wires and I've done some electrical work before, but I know these babies pull a lot of juice and I'd rather avoid having to do that. Of course, Sir Knight, you are right in that a ballast that close to the sump is probably not the greatest idea ever... so I'll have to come up with something.

I have a Quiet One 3000 for the return pump and I can run that external. I can only fit a 20 gallon under the stand (because of the shape), so that's what I was planning to use there. I might add a seperate 10 gallon refugium assuming it fits (still haven't had a chance to measure that. A couple of Maxi-Jets for water movement in the tank will also add a little heat, but relatively minor. I'll be using a 65 super skimmer on the tank until I can upgrade that (assuming I need to...I know a few people that run softie tanks without skimmers) so add another pump to the heat issue.
 
Just had an idea on the fuge. Build a shlef for the 10 gallon fuge. You wouldn't run it full, so you wouldn't have too much weight on it. Tee off the drain line to the sump and put a ball valve on to control the feed to the fuge and drain from the fuge to the sump. Let gravity work for you.
 
Just let me know when and we can work something out. I've got family in town Saturday and will be out of town next weekend, but off the whole week of Christmas.
 
hey brian, when i had a 92 corner i ran a 36" fixture on it. it measures 36" from "side" to "side" about 4 inches back from the front pane. theres a few lights out there that are 2x 150 de halides @ 36". the way to do it is get a few scrap pieces of acrylic and make the 2 front corners like shelves then use the fixture with its stock mounting legs. sometimes you have to trim the legs to sit flat but its a 2 minute job. also budget allowing aqautinics makes a 36" halide fixture as well as a t5 fixture and both are designed to sit directly on top of the tank and never raise the temp. 1 degree. best of luck, corners are challenges, but imo the most visually stunning tanks there are. <~~~steve
 
As far as the drilling... I doubt I'm going to be able to fit that in pre-Christmas. If I can get a 20 gallon and a plan we could try for some time before New Years (maybe Friday before New Years).

As far as lighting...I'm starting to lean toward 3x2 24" bulb T5 retrofits fanned out from the back. I think I might be able to make a hanging type wooden fixture to fit them that I can just fit over top. I'm not a great carpenter, but without a little practice I'll never get better.
 
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