Photoperiod for 1,000 Watt Halides

S

Steve Tyree

Premium Member
Hello fellow sps keepers. I am curious to find out the length of time (photoperiod) fellow reefers using 1,000 watt halides are running there bulbs. I have had some experience with a large reef that was using 1,000 watt halides, but am curious to see what other stony coral aquarist are doing.

Steve Tyree
 
Hey Steve, hope all is well with you. I need to take a run up to see you.

One of the guys in our club is running 3 x 1000 watt bulbs in his 1200 gal, I will have him post his experence.

Barry in San Diego
 
I plan on having two 400W 20KK's and one 1000W 5500K over my new 170-gallon cube tank when it gets up and running. I'll probably only end up running the 1000 watter a couple of hours per day.
 
It would make sense to use the 1000W as a high noon effect, banked by a pair of 400W (number would depend upon tank size) or you could stagger the lighting (tracking the sun...)

If that's what your intending...
 
Steve,

If additional light is used (400 watt bulbs), a few hours is probably more than enough. If 1000 watt bulbs are all that are used, I am sure you could get by with four or five hours, but to properly emulate day/night periods of nature, you would want to run the 1000 watters longer or use additional bulbs anyway. It is tough to say; not many of the 1000 watt bulbs have output data. someone on this board said, to my recollection, that a 1000 watt 20,000K Coralife bulb has only 20% more output (in what units, I do not know) than a 400 watt Radium on an HQI ballast. If anyone thinks this statement is wrong, please correct me.
 
Steve,

I remember we had a chat about this a few months back...I say just blast them stonies for 12 hours a day!!! hehehe...I would have to second JerseyReef and TerraFerma..I think they hit it on the nose.

ps...is the purple monster frag ready?
 
Thanks for the responses. Utilizing the 1,000 watters for a short midday peak is one application. What I am more concerned about is the fringe reef aquarist who puts a 1,000 watt over a 60 gallon reef. Yes this could be called insane and not intense lighting, but there are a few reefers doing this. A couple of the shallow water intense light corals from Fiji appear to do well under these lights. However, for most corals this is too much light. What should the fringe aquarist who places a single 1,000 watt bulb over a 60 gallon do ? How many hours. Is 4 too little ? Is 10 too much ? Me and Tracy Gray are having a friendly debate on the subject. The reason I brought it up is for the stony coral book I am currently working on. Any other input would be appreciated.

Steve Tyree
 
Steve,

If a reefer was to use the 1000W MH on small tank, they would have to do a few things...

It will need to be suspended, this will reduce the heat issue some.

Depending upon what ballast was used to drive the lamp, the light output could vary a lot. Example would be the 20K Radium on a 400W MH ballast. Since the proper ballast is hard to find and there's no real test data to back up any PPFD claims.

If the reefer were able to locate the proper ballast to run the bulb, and used it over a small tank. I would run the photo period somewhere between 4-6 hrs and supplement the remaining photo period with either lower wattage MH's or VHO's. Again, this brings you back to staggered lighting or high noon lighting effect. IMO

The one advantage I see using 1000W MH, is on very tall tanks or maybe very wide tanks...

HTH
 
terra ferma ive said that dave morgavi at pfo told me a 1000watt 20k radium bulb on a standard ballast is only 20%brighter than a 400watt on a hqi.
but i plan to use the 20k 1000watt coralife
i have to purchase the bulb still
right now on a 135 which will be moved soon i have a 175 watt 55k coralife on a star trak light mover along with 2 6ft vhos.
the 135 will be replace with a 180 and the 1000watt 20k coralife
ive never seen the bulb in action though or been able to talk to anyone who has
ill let you know how it goes
 
Steve,

As you already know I run 3 400 watt bulbs. I used to run 20ks but now have switched to Iwasakis. I have no data but I think this puts out twice the ppfd as the radiums?? Correct me if Im wrong , but its like putting 6 Radiums over my 58gallon! The corals are responding well and have seen no ill effects. As far as photoperiod...I run mines at 8 hrs/day. Whether the corals come from Fiji, Solomons, Philippines...they have no choice. They take what is given and have no choice but to adjust to the environment we provide to them.
 
Okay. Jersey reef votes for a 4 to 6 hour photoperiod for a hypothetical single 1,000 watt halide over a small reef. Anyone else want to place a vote ?

FYI - There has been pubished data by Joshi and Morgan on how the 400 watt 20,000 K osram behaved on different ballasts.

Steve Tyree
 
to sps_guy
The 20,000 K bulbs put out signiifcantly more blue light then the Iwasakis. Just reference Joshi Morgans data, but dont count violet as blue, because its not. The Iwasakis put out significantly more violet then the 20,000 K (especially the new models). The Iwasakis are definitly acceptable bulbs that do a good job, so are the 20,000 K's. We have plenty of really nice reefs running both. However, both bulbs have their particular weakness and their particular strength. That is what I demonstrate within my book (currently being written). What matters is PPFD at wavelength. The physics of pigment photoreception, is wavelength dependent.
 
Steve,

I mis wrote on the 400W 20K Radium. I ment to say that you can run this bulb on a 400W MH ballast, but it's output is dramatically reduced, compared to when you run it on a HQI or e-ballast.

Sorry for mistake... I knew it didn't sound right, I type too fast :rolleyes:
 
Speaking of mistakes, I should note that my previous remarks only concern the 400 watt bulbs (20,000 K and 6,500 K). The 250 watters are an entirely different story.
 
Outside of wattage, (Off the subject I know) the 250's are different in what respect? The ratio of wattage to PPFD is about the same. .405 for the 400's vs .403 for the 250's (iwasaki's) .... Unfortunately, Sanjay did not include the 250 HQI or the 1000 Watt bulb. I would of love to have seen data on that.
 
A lfs around here has 1x1000 and 4 96 watt pcs on their display tank. It gets run a few hours here, few hours there with no defined pattern that I know of. I would vote with the 4-6 hr photoperiod like jersey reef as well though. I thought about putting one on my 60 but decided to go with 2x250 iwasakis and 2x55 pcs :) I think the 1000 would have been too much and caused bleaching of alot of my corals that I have worked too hard to aquire.

J
 
ol'reefer - The 250 watt Iwasaki 6,500 K emits more Blue PPFD then the 250 watt Osram 20,000 K, but still comes in second behind another bulb. I think it was the double ended, but dont have my tables in front of me right now.

Terra Ferma - PPFD at wavelength is important for both the algal pigments and the corals pigments. For example, there are 5 primarily fluorescing Pocilloporins that have been currently identified by science. These pigments have specific absorption maxima and specific emission maxima. The interesting thing is that the maximas of the algal pigments appear to be related to the different maxima of the coral pigments. A perplexing biodesign issue.

newreefman1 - Looks like the consensus for a small tank that recieves most of its light from a 1,000 watter is a 4 to 6 hour photoperiod. Now I had targeted 7 hours. The reason is that we have to find the happy middle ground where the coral satisfies its daily repisratory demands from the algae and the algae does not suffer photoxidation damage from the intense light. I think though after seeing your suggestions that I may recommend 6 hours. That means that for 18 hours each day however the coral recieves no light.
 
Do you have to just have 1 1000 watter?

Cant you have some actinics or seomthing so there is 6 hrs of 1000 but 2 in each direction (dawn/dusk) of a few hundred watts (or less if you choose) of VHO's?

Just an idea..
 
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