Looking for MH guidance

[MJAnderson]

As part of my master plan for an upgrade, I've been picking up some used equipment to set up a frag tank to start growing out some corals. I have everything I need besides lighting. I'm thinking of going MH. Since I'm looking to go used and it will be in my basement, looks aren't important. What should I look for? SE or DE? Magnetic or Electronic? Does it really matter for just frags?

 

[itZme]

Re: Looking for MH guidance

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9990731#post9990731 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MJAnderson
Does it really matter for just frags?

Not really. You may save some heat and noise by using an electronic ballast.

If you are growing them out to go into your T5-lit tank I would get them growing under t5 lights instead of acclimating the frags to the MH and then they grow and color up just to be moved to another lighting setup where they have to acclimate again. I have watched many SPS frags turn almost completely brown then come back after a few weeks after being added to my tank. It's not the end of the world to go through that but why stress them out any more than you have to?

It may also save you some money on electricity. What size tank are you going to use? One MH is usaully recommended for a 2'x2' area so if you have a 3ft tank you may be much better off getting a 36" 4 bulb T5 retro. If you have a 3ft tank and decide to go MH you could try the LumenMax reflectors as they have a larger "spread" of light.

I run 4x 48" t5's on an IceCap 660 and the electricity used is about 370 watts so, unless you do not overdrive them, you would not be saving much in electricity over 2x250w MH and you could save a bit by going 2x 175w MH.

One of the main reasons I like T5 is the ability to customize the color to your liking by trying bulbs. When I added a GE daylight 6500K bulb I noticed increased growth in all my corals. There is also the benefit of heat not being as great as that generated by MH. My t5 bulbs are about 2" off the water surface. If you tried that with a MH setup you would have coral soup in a few days.

Hope my comments helped instead of complicating things more

-- Kevin

 

[MJAnderson]

Tank is a 40l. The thought was to put one 250w MH 10k over the SPS 1/2 and a PC light I picked up over the other 1/2 for LPS/Softies. It's in the basement so the heat wasn't as big an issue for me.

Good point about switching them from MH to T5 --- didn't think of that. Maybe I'll just keep an eye out for a t5 ballast and throw some eggcrate over the LPS/Softie side.

 

[itZme]

FYI ... I have 4 single 48" T5 reflectors that I was going to list for sale if you are interested I will give you first crack at them for $60 for the set of 4 with bulb clips. They retail for $22 ea.

 

[MJAnderson]

Kevin,

Do you know who makes them?

 

[4RJN]

MJ I have a magnetic ballast if your interested for $35

 

[Spilo26]

Mj id say if possible go with an HQI or DE bulb they have a slightly higher par per watt than a SE. But for a grow out tank unless its sps i see using T-5 light to be a better option personally.

 

[MJAnderson]

Bump for Kevin

 

[itZme]

Sorry, missed your question. I bought them from a guy on RC as IceCap SLR reflectors but they are not the same material as my other SLRs so I bought 4 new ones and put them into the pile of extras. They are aluminum and have the same clips as the other IceCap SLRs I have.

 

[itZme]

Found the thread where I bought them.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=991125