piecing together MH setup, ideas needed

[crvz]

As long as I've been doing this (10 years or more), I've owned one single metal halide setup; a simple 150W pendant with an icecap ballast that I used over a frag with a phoenix 14kK bulb.

With my home and tank in transition (click the red house), I've got about 6 months to shop used hardware (or new) and piece together a lighting system. I have used T5 bulbs on icecap ballasts for the last 3 or 4 years with good success (primarily stony corals), but I'm researching moving towards metal halide for a number of reasons (aesthetics and better penetration for starters). I want something that would work well on my current 5'x2'x2' tank, and that could be easily moved over to a tank closer to 90"x30"x20" if I get my wish. I know 20" is pretty shallow, even for T5, but I want more flexibility in placement of high light demanding corals.

I like quality hardware, and I've experience with icecap ballasts thus far, so I'm leaning towards their 250W MH ballasts. I've also read a few good reviews of the lumenbright mini-wide reflector to give me a bit more coverage (for the 30" wide tank).

But if you were me, what would you use?

 

[DarG]

Just to get you started ... most use 1 pendant per 2 feet of tank length. Some stretch that to 3 feet with the larger pendants or pendants with wider spread. The Lumenbrights are meant for a higher mounting height (16" I believe) and provide good, broad coverage according to user reviews. The wides are newer, I dont know much about the Lumenbrights in general and less about the newer wides. I believe the mini wides can be mounted lower while still maintaining broad coverage. But specific user reviews for those would serve you much better ... try the search because there is a good amount of info on them.

Anyway ... you will need atleast one more pendant for the 7.5' tank compared to the 5' tank.
The Icecap electronic ballasts have a good reputation. Lumatek is also a popular choice as are the Galaxy ballasts. E-ballasts have become very popular. If you have had good luck with the Icecaps then you have a good case for staying with what you have had luck with.

For good pendants besides the Lumenbrights there are the Lumenarcs as well as the Lumenmax and Lumenmax elites. These also come in small versions and large versions (20" ranges give or take). The small/mini versions are by far the most popular. They will all provide plenty of spread for the 30" width and all get good reviews overall with the typical user preferences for one brand/model over another. Most of these have been professionally reviewed. I dont have the links off hand but I believe that advanced aquarist did most of the reviews. Check Sanjays lighting pages at Manhattan reefs. His reviews section has links to many reflector/pendant reviews as well as lamp reviews. He also has a lamp database with raw output and spectral plots. The Lumenmax elites and Lumenbrights, including the wides I think, have been recently reviewed ... not sure if that would be listed in Sanjays review links but someone will have the link.

Hopefully that helps get you started. For specific user reviews, I would post a new thread with the name of the pendants in the title.

 

[shaggy14]

lumatek ballasts and lumen max elite pendants

 

[crvz]

great start, DarG, thanks. I was planning on 2 bulbs over the 5' tank and then 3 if I got the larger tank. That gives me a great starting point for research. But tell me what specific hardware you would chose, if you don't mind.

 

[DarG]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15516023#post15516023 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by crvz
great start, DarG, thanks. I was planning on 2 bulbs over the 5' tank and then 3 if I got the larger tank. That gives me a great starting point for research. But tell me what specific hardware you would chose, if you don't mind.

I like the Lumenmax 2 or 3 pendants. The 2 is for Mogul lamps and the 3 for double ended. But for 3 pendants over a 90" tank I would consider the Lumenmax elites. The Lumenmax 2 and 3 are really suited for 2 foot coverage although they would still provide good coverage at 2.5 feet. Like I stated, some do stretch the small version of the pendants out to one per 3 feet.
But the Elite is a bit larger pendant and provides wider spread. I have never used the Lumenbright pendants however. The were not even available at the time but the higher mounting height would be problematic for me. By the way ... all these pendants I mention are symmetrical design. The reflective area is square so coverage is even in both directions ... most applications dont require coverage as wide as it is long but the symmetrical design provides a more uniform coverage overall compared to a pendant that is longer than it is wide for example. The Lumenbrights are a different design ... 6 or 8 sided but this design also provides a more symmetrical coverage compared to the pendants that are longer than they are wide.

I also prefer the double ended lamps but that is more personal choice than actual performance choice. many choose the lamp base type because a specific lamp is only available in one base type and not the other. The 250 watt Radium is a good example, only available as single ended. Or the 250 watt Phoenix 14K which until recently as only available as a DE lamp.

There are more choices in single ended lamps in 250 watt which is another reason why many choose the mogul lamps. But many of these are older probe style lamps, asian made. So as far as the higher quality, euro made lamps, they are generally available in both base types in 250 watt. Again, the main exception being the Radium 20K. I have tried a lot of lamps. I prefer to stick with the Euro made lamps, namely the Ushio 20K which I really like. I think in general that the German/Belgium made lamps are more consistent in color and overall better quality than the chinese made lamps. I have had more than one issue with consistency/quality with chinese made lamps so I personally stick with what I consider to be the better made, more consistent (in general) lamps. I Also like the Japanese made Iwasaki lamps.
I also prefer to use magnetic ballasts, especially for the "hqi" rated lamps ... double ended 150 watt or 250 watt and some mogul based HQI rated lamps. I prefer to run the lamps that are spec'd for M80 ballast (the magnetic 250 watt HQI ballast) on these ballasts rather than electronics. But again, this is a personal choice more than anything else. The magnetic hqi ballast does drive these lamps to their spec'd output and spectrum. The cost is higher energy used and less efficient in most cases. The Electronics work fine and are probably the more popular choice now. output is a bit lower and the lamps tend to run a bit bluer on electronics compared to the HQI magnetic. The ballasts are more efficient in general and use less energy. They are also able to run all bulb types, probe start, pulse start and "hqi" while the magnetics are specific to the lamp type for proper operation. So in 250 watt for example, an electronic ballast can take the place of 3 different types of magnetic ballasts.

A lot of these decisions are very much based on personal choice over actual performance advantages. So, with that in mind, you have a lot of research to do.