MH recomendation

Warnberg

Warnberg

New member
For those of you that have MH lighting what would you recommend for my tank.

I am thinking about an upgrade, new hood (taller) and a light change out.
 
I just picked up a triple 175 MH retro kit with 10K bulbs and so far so good. These are on a 180 and I'm going MH only. If your looking to do SPS the 175's are not strong enough but it also depends on the depth of your tank.
 
Thats what I was thinking as well... but how many? 4? and what ballast would you use? Bulb recomendation? Should I do pendants or a retro kit?

Thanks for the input,
 
Just an fyi and some food for though I have 5 400w 14k AC on my 360.. and I was thinking about swapping a few out to 10k to get a faster growth rate. It just depends on what you want to keep.
 
i do not think you need 400 watt .i see the best results in tanks that are not overdriven with light.heat and other issues like energy consumption are my concern lately.take a look at some pics in my gallery.i run 175 mogul XM 10 k bulbs with vho actinic.my sps growth is better than in tanks i ran 250 and 400 on.colors are great.i think IMO 250 is plenty to grow sps or whatever.
 
yeah something like that.

i do not think you need 400 watt .i see the best results in tanks that are not overdriven with light.heat and other issues like energy consumption are my concern lately.take a look at some pics in my gallery.i run 175 mogul XM 10 k bulbs with vho actinic.my sps growth is better than in tanks i ran 250 and 400 on.colors are great.i think IMO 250 is plenty to grow sps or whatever.
Click to expand...

rigleautomotive is right I be doing some more research before I jumped into this.

Depending on what type of coral at what depth is another factor. You could get away with 250w mh with VHO or PC supplements.
Also I have been noticing more and more reefers using t-5.

Paul
 
I'm currently running all T5's over my tank and I'm not real impressed with the coloring of the corals I am keeping. They are doing fine and growing but the colors just aren't there. So I have been contimplating going with 3 MH across the tank (1 center, and 1 2 feet from each end) supplemented with 4 of the 54 Watt T5's I currently have, removing the other 4. In addition I will replace the existing hood with a taller one. Current hood is only 6 inches tall, new hood would be more like 16 to 18 inches tall. My concern is heat and acrylic, I have heard acrylic will crack from heat stress...

Just thinking here and weighting my options and I am open to suggestions.

Thanks,
 
build a new wood custom hood with 3 250 watt mogul based MH (color temp 10 or 14k)and use your pc for actinic.it will kick butt in par and color and growth.use 3 fans to cool it.i build all my hoods.they work better than any i ever bought and you can upgrade easy.i am not aware of problems with acrylic,i have never had a acrylic tank,but me sumps are all diy plexi and i have ran MH over them with no cracking.if you are not handy enough to build it have someone build it for you.just one option
 
Warnberg,

Thanks for the input on the t-5.

I am running 2 250w mh 14k AC with 2 110VHOs on a 90ga. temp for me. Water temp runs 84 during the day and 82 at night. lights are 8" off the water with 2 cooling fans. The color on my corals are awsome IMO and growth rate, I am happy. There are number af factors in growth rate besides light IME. Water condition/water changes/water flow/water temps/type of coral/coral placement...etc

Paul
 
Hawk'ster, I agree completely with you on water condition/factors. That is what leads me to believe I am getting the growth rates I am getting with the T5's, but I am just not happy with the coloration of my corals. I walk into John's place and look at the coloration of his corals and am just amazed. He has one frag tank that is at least 36 inches deep, there are 3 or 4 MH's over it and the lights are at least 3 feet above the top of the water.

Color me jealous....
 
Is there a "Aquarium Lighting for Dummies" book? Seriously. I want to read up on the basics. What everything means...what lighting certain things supposedly needs, etc. Thx. (sorry for the hijack but apparently some people here know MUCH more than me and I wanna learn!)!
 
Lady you should come by one day and Ill give ya a crash course, Ya can ask me as many questions ya want!!!!.....
BTW nice setups ya have also!!! ;)
 
The footprint on that tank is what, 8x2x2?. IMO, 3x250 is quite sufficient. On my 225, I've got 2x250. The tank dimensions are 6Lx3Wx20"H and my lighting is plenty for anything I want to keep. The extra 4" might warrant moving up to the 400, but I don't think it's necessary in any way.

As for coloration, I'm using Aquaconnect 14k (the 250 SE can be really hard to find and aren't cheap if you do) and 2 4" VHO actinics.

As for water temps...don't even get me started. Without my chiller I'd be in the 95+ range, but I also have a closed "canopy" and evaporative cooling was not an option.

Is it perhaps the combination of bulbs that is causing the coloration issue? I don't keep any stonies in it so no input there, but my T5 lit 30 gallon has beautiful color in it.
 
I thought the 240 was a tall and was like 31" tall? That being said I think that 250w would be okay but the 400w would be much better and wouldn't limit you to where you have your corals placed and would also allow you to have the lights a little higher from the water.
72" you could do 2 400w with the right reflectors or do three. but four would be unneccesary imo. The spider reflectors give an even spread of 36" at 9" or higher above the water.
I would use IceCap ballast for sure but I would take a look at Reeflux 12k! I put these on one of my tanks and they are nice! Bright and a crisp blue tint and the colors of the corals have never looked better and I was using AC14k.
I think that without a chiller it will be hard to keep stable temps. I used several fans and so on when I first went to MH and I was losing so much water everyday! My house was so humid also. Just my experience.
 
Just looked on Tenecors site...guess there is a high and long version of the 240. 96x24x24 or 96x18x30. I missed the "Tall" in his sig...with that the 400s are probably better. Though still doable with 250s with proper livestock placement.

I may have to give those Reeflux 12ks a try next time I need bulbs...do they cost just as much as the ACs?
 
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