Need opinions on lighting components.

[jbrunken]

I'm still planning out my new stand and canopy and I'm hoping that you all can give me some opinions on some lighting components.

My new canopy is going to have an open top and be large enough to hang pendant MH lighting inside.

I've looked at the SE setups and they just have too big of a footprint for what I need so I've decided to go with 3 250W DE pendants (XM 20K, HAMILTION 14K, XM 20K) over my 125G (6') tank.

Right now I'm deciding between buying these "pre made" pendants:

http://www.hellolights.com/25pfomipe.html

or these retrofit HQI reflector/sockets.

http://www.hellolights.com/25hqidenmhre.html

It seems to me that it shouldn't be that hard (to find a way to turn the reflector into a DIY pendant. That would save me a good chunk of the $210 price difference.

Is there something that I'm not considering here? Has anyone ever built a DIY HQI pendant? If so, how did you do it?

Thanks

-JB

 

[lllosingit]

The DIY reflector looks as if it can be mounted the same way you would mount a standard reflector inside a canopy, Just leave an air gap between the reflector and wood and make sure you use the UV shield that comes with the reflector.
Browse the DIY forum for different canopy designs.
I really like This Canopy. The only thing I would do is make it so the lights lift with the lid.

 

[jbrunken]

I've pretty much got my canopy design figured out, I'm just trying to figure out what to do about the pendants.

What I really want to do is get good ideas of how to turn those DIY reflectors into pendants (which I can hang). I know it can be done, I'm just hoping that all of the brains around here can give me a better idea than the ones I already have...

-JB

 

[lllosingit]

Did you look at the pictures on the thread I linked????

It might help if you post your design?

Here is how he is mounting his pendants, Unless I have the wrong idea of what your canopy is going to look like with an open top.... I thought this would work perfectly

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7232773#post7232773 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Ginzo

 

[got2lb]

lllosingit - The way it sounds to me is that he want's them to hang from the ceiling?

I would think you could drill 2 holes in the backside of the reflector and put 2 eye bolts in it and then hang it that way. Not sure how it would look but it should work.

 

[lllosingit]

I guess when I read "My new canopy is going to have an open top and be large enough to hang pendant MH lighting inside."
I didn't think he would be hanging anything from the ceiling.
He could do it just like the picture above.

 

[jbrunken]

got2lb is right (almost) I do want to hang the individual pendants from wires (or plastic chains) so that their distance from the water can be individually adjustable.

My canopy will be 24" tall and will have a "rail" system on the top that will allow me to adjust the horizontal placement of the lights, so they will be hung within the canopy.

My question pertains more to the details of how I should go about hanging the DIY reflectors...

Case in point, the PFO pendants have eye hooks, this makes hanging them simple. With the DIY reflectors, I will need to come up with a way to hang them (as it looks like they are made to be attached directly to the top of a canopy.

I thought about doing something like got2lb suggested where I just drill holes throught the reflector and hang them with eye hooks... I just wasn't sure if I need to add some sort of heat sink or something to help draw heat out....

Sorry if it's confusing, I guess I'm just having a hard time phrasing the question...

-JB

 

[glaspie69]

I would think that you would want to get some sort of support on those reflectors, I wouldn't want to attach the eye bolts straight to the refletor itself. Maybe you could get a small peice of 1/8" steel or something like that and attach the reflector to the steel with some eye bolts and large washers so theres no chance the reflector material could rip apart after hung. I can honestly say I think you would be happier with the single end bulb, but thats why they call it an opinion. How far from the water surface are you planning on mounting these DIY reflectors?

 

[got2lb]

Jason has a good point. I really don't think it would rip through especially if you put a big washer on the inside. Jason's idea would def. work though.

I'm also with him on just using the SE bulbs but if you really want to use the DE's that's up to you.

How come you need such a small reflector for a 125? Are you going to be running VHO's or something else with it?

 

[jbrunken]

I don't have anything against SE's except for the reflectors are SO big...

Case in point: The 3 openings in my top are each 21" x 16" and there is about an inch of space between the water line and the top of the tank...

If I get a typical SE reflector (like the Spider reflector) the dimensions will be 16" x 13" x 5". Now, if I mount that so that the light is 8" above the water and the reflector is flush with the back of the tank, it only gives me a space of about 5" from the front of the tank and 3" from the top of the water to work with... That's not much space to work with without bumping the reflector all the time when I have to do stuff like clean the glass... It also seems like it would trap more heat near the tank surface.

Everyone here seems to be really high on the SE's now, but I've read many posts from people claiming that the DE's are superior in a lot of ways. From a price standpoint, they appear to be about the same these days.

What are your reasons for wanting SE over DE?

This hobby can be so confusing...

-JB

 

[Covey]

For what it is worth I added hooks and a locknut to my hellolight reflector to hang them. It worked fine. I got the hooks with the safety clips to reduce the chance that I would bump them off the hook.

Actually my setup sound alot like what jburken is planning.
Here a pic of mine from behind the tank.

I have the lights hanging down about a foot from the top of the PVC rack. I wanted to make a freestanding system that would allow my to hang the lights up out of the way when I was doing maintaince.

This is what it looks like from the front with the canopy off.

and on

I like SE bulbs too. Better selection, better spread, and usally cheaper to set up.

 

[jbrunken]

Covey,

That's very similar to what I'm planning...

However, I'm still not sold on why SE is inherently better. From what I've seen there is little if any difference in the price and every bulb I've looked into so far is available as both SE and DE... I've also read that the DE bulbs have a longer life.

I can understand the argument about the spread being bigger with larger reflectors, but I'm not even sure that makes them better... One could argue that shadows and areas of less light might be useful for certain corals not to mention that some shadows might make for a really nice look...

I'm just trying to understand why people prefer SE (or DE for that matter).

Honestly, I think that the simple fact is that (SE or DE) 250K x 3 worth of MH lighting is going to be plenty for a 125..

-JB

 

[got2lb]

Originally posted</a> by jbrunken

Honestly, I think that the simple fact is that (SE or DE) 250K x 3 worth of MH lighting is going to be plenty for a 125..

I would say that you're right with that!

From everything I've read you get more spread out of the SE's with dif. reflectors. You can also get mega par out of them if you use an HQI ballast with them.

I think a lot of the talk about the DE's being so good is just because they're kind of the "new" thing out.

You could do the same thing you're talking about doing with the SE fixtures. Put the Reflectors on some chains and when you want to work on the tank just raise them up. How much room do you really need to work on stuff in there? I only have about 5" of room to get in mine and I've never had a problem yet. About the only thing I couldn't do is take out some of the BIG pieces of Live Rock I have in there without taking the canopy off.

 

[jbrunken]

But.... If you overdrive them with an HQI ballast, you are going to make your bulb life shorter, thus making them more expensive in the long run...

I know I could probably work around the SE reflectors, but the other issue is air flow... My end goal is to have my whole setup run by an AquaController III... I want to mount a couple of 6" fans in the canopy that blow on the water surface for cooling (chillers are just WAY too expensive).

I think that the smaller DE reflectors will trap less heat and allow for more airflow.

The real moral to this story is that I should probably buy a decent HQI ballast that will run both. That way if a year down the line I'm not happy with the DE's, I can switch to SE's when I need to replace bulbs and the only real "new" cost will be the cost of switching to SE reflectors...

-JB

 

[leeweber85]

Sanjays test prove SE to have much more PAR than DE. Eitherway, both are proven to grow corals.

http://www.reeflightinginfo.arvixe.com/select2lamp.php

 

[jbrunken]

Eitherway, both are proven to grow corals.

That's kind of my point... On my tank (which is only 22" deep) the difference in PAR isn't going to mean that much to me. Both setups will be able to grow coral fine (at least for my needs).

However, DE gets me 1) better air flow and 2) longer lamp life. Both are important to me because I'm on a budget and not having to buy new lamps as often or big expensive pieces of equipment like a chiller is a big deal to me...

-JB