Mojo's Lighting upgrade ?

[mojo~]

Ok many people are going from MH to T5ho's well I am going the other way. I am going from 6 t5's on my 90 sps reef tank. I really enjoy the color pop and the growth is ok. I ran 6 bulbs, a mixture of blue+, aquablue special, and fiji purple. MY old canopy was pretty shallow and I didnt want the water to splash up on the reflectors so I ran glass tops. Well I wanted to open it up and try out some halides. I have everything ordered just waiting for it all to arrive. I have the two 250 watt radiums already. I have bought 2 lumenMax 2 reflectors and a dual galaxy ballast.
Along with these I am going to use two t5 ho's. I have thought about sing VHO's instead but I have the t5 ballast endcaps ect. along with all of this I have been looking at different cooling fans and other options. Here is what I had to start with.

This will take me about two weeks to get this completed. Any comments are welcome or suggestions.

 

[jayk198030]

Good luck with the project! Tank looks good now.. MH should help, definitely with growth.. Lets see some pics with MH when your done.

 

[mojo~]

lol right now I have 1 borrowed 250 w Hqi pendant over the middle with two t5's over the top sitting there. So I cant wait to get my pendants and my ballast. At least then I can run the bulbs without the canopy as the canopy is about 10 days out yet.

 

[mojo~]

OK, Today I got the tracking # for my canopy. I have a make shift frame to hold my two radiums and 2 t5 above the tank. kinda ghetto looking but it gets the job done. Sure puts out the heat. No fans on anything right now. I have 5 fans all together so we will see what happens.

 

[Anemonebuff]

The fans should be fine for temp control, you just may need to aim them at the tank surface. Just watch out for bleaching, maybe raise the MH up at first and slowly lower them over a week. They will be way more intense then the T5s.

 

[mojo~]

Yea I have had a casualty. MY light cycle is only at 4 hours of halides. went from 2 to 3 to 4.

 

[J.R.L.]

i run radiums in lumenbrights on a bluewave 7 hqi ballast and bleached everything, my corals are still recovering lol

but you will like the radiums, at least on my HQI ballast they burn an amazing color but i think i will still add some actinics

 

[PowermanKW]

Since you are starting from scratch, it should be pretty easy. You can wire how ever you want. I just rewired my Coralife fixture from 150w to 250w with the dual Galaxy. The Galaxy is cooler than my other magnetics, but it is no ice maker.

Does your fan have it's own power supply? If not you will have to splice in somewhere.

 

[mojo~]

I have 4 fans that run on 1 supply and the the 5th fan is a ice cap fan with its own supply.

 

[PowermanKW]

sweet.

 

[corbett_n]

Is one powerbrite enough for your tank? I have a 75g and was hoping one would be enough.

 

[mojo~]

two would be better. I sold mine and went with different type of led strip with 300 led's in it. much better spread. about 15w of leds.

 

[mojo~]

Just a little update. My canopy finally showed up. I had to put it all together and finish it. IT is drying in the garage. I ll snap some pics and show you what I am working with. So far so good.

 

[mojo~]

ok well I got the canopy on the tank. its not quite done yet. I have to wire up the fans and figure out where I am going to mount the t5's yet. But I have pictures lol. So take a look. The lower trim shipped with it was the wrong trim. The new trim was shipped today. So their is not trim on the bottom yet. but hopefully this weekend their will be
Mojo~

My 300 led 4ft strip

Reflectors

 

[mojo~]

So there is my start. I have a it almost done. Make an extension for the fan cables, get the trim in and finished, and mount the t5ho's and we will see how it goes

Mojo~

 

[hoaglanddiver]

Looks awesome. Keep us posted on progress

 

[JCR's Reef]

Looks good. I like the look of my Lobo under those leds. I can almost see my agent oranges too. Almost.
You should send that Icecap ballast in to get repaired so you can run VHO's and your T5's.
Those leds 46 1/2" or 48"?

 

[Dholmblad]

Did you make that LED lighting strip or did you purchase it?

 

[mojo~]

I bought the led strip on ebay. the guy ships right away and well i can say how long they will last but i have had them 3 weeks. I think they are $40 plus shipping if I can remember. Nice moonlights though.

JCR the ice cap is sent in. I am hoping to hear back from them any day now. Not sure how long that takes. I am going to go get my acrylic now for yet another sump to build. But I need to tack the cables from the lights to the lid. wire in the fans, mount the ballast, and igure out what to do for my supplemental lighting. I have a t5 ballast and two t5 ati blue + i bought for it but not sure I would to use that ballast. the cords are kinda short and I would have to re wire it. And if I am going to do all that I might as well wait for the icecap 660 ballast I have out for repair. Thanks for the kind words
Mojo~

 

[mojo~]

Ok I got the trim put on and the upgrade complete. So how about a couple pics? ok ok

ati blue +