Single halide aquariums

[Unarce]

by REEFER714

That is bloody gorgeous! Could you describe your light mover a bit?

 

[the_anti_honda]

Yea that tank is out of control...

 

[Stoney Mahony]

Light movers are awesome b/c they basically eliminate the dark areas and allow corals to be full color on all sides. One other option, though it would probably be more expensive is to mount 2 400w over say your 55. Run the left for 2hrs, then have it go off and the one on the right come on for 2hrs and so on throughout the day. It's commonly used in indoor hydroponics to create fuller plants and increase vegitable harvest all the while cutting the electric bill in half. It is refered to as running an "Inverse lighting scheem". I believe this will work just as good on a reef tank as it does in the GH .

 

[Freds]

I have a 58 gallon tank as well, I was going to use a single 400W over it in a Lumenarc pendant but opted for dual 150s instead.

 

[Jar*Head]

Unarce, Thanks for the kind word. With light mover the corals colored up very nicely all around. As far as growth with 1000watter, is awesome. My corals grow extremely fast. Most of my corals came from an inch frag a year ago and most of them now become large colony.

When i first heard of 1000watter, i thought it is nut for someone to run such powerful light. I also heard bad thing about 1000w which is bleaching or killing corals. But with the mover method, it work very well for me.

 

[Kinetic]

what kind of light mover are you using?

 

[Jar*Head]

I'm using the Rapelli(spelling?) 5rpm motor from SLS, Lumamax reflector from SLS cover 4x4. You can get the motor and rail from Hydrofarm cheaper and they made better ballast then SLS IMO. I paid 500 bucks for my SLS future brite ballast and it doesn't fire any halide bulb but M47 standard magnetic bulb. I'm very happy with my Powerhouse ballast from Hydrofarm now since it will fire any bulb, cost only half of the price and 8yrs warranty

 

[Stoney Mahony]

I have 5 1000w mh ballasts that I use in hydroponics, just don't have any tank big enough for one yet. I have 2 powerhouse by hydrofarm and 3 sun systems 1 ballasts. The sun systems are silent compared to the hydrofarms and give off about the same heat as other 400w ballasts I have(I have too much lighting crap). Both types fire any type of mh bulb and I think the SS ballasts cost about $325 w/ sun grow reflectors and 6500k bulbs. I'm not hating on hydrofarm, just telling my experiences. The thing that I can't get over is the going rate for a 1000w 20k bulb. It's ridiculous.

 

[Jar*Head]

hahaha stoney, whenever you need another Sun system 1 let me know. i have a 3 months old ballast want to get rid of . Ushio 20K isn't that expensive. I paid 125 each, is that how much you paid? I also have the Helios 20k and Hamilton 14k and Ushio 20 they all about a month old or so. Let me know if you want it, i'll send them your way.

 

[Funky_Fish14]

Looking great guys!

REEFER714: GREAT TANK! Looks fantastic!

Well, everyone managed to motivate me and finally kick my thought into gear. I went out and bought a light rail today. 6 Rpm Light Rail, Intellidrive 3.5. It is manufactured by Gualala Robotics. I'll only have it moving 2ft back and forth over my 4ft tank supplemented with T5's. 400W bulb in an LAIII should cover it nicely, haha. The website is www.lightrail3.com.

Cant wait to get this unit running over the tank! Mind you, I need the tank first, which I just ordered today :lol:

Chris

 

[sigster500]

single 250w 10k luminarc, no actinics yet .. tank at 6 months.

 

[the_anti_honda]

sigster500

Your tank looks like it has a lot of potential. I would not put any supplementation over it maybe just switch to a 12k or 14k if you really think you need more blue. I think the color of the tank looks perfect now.

 

[smatter]

What do you need actinics for? Your corals could care less if you use them, your halide emits plenty of 420nm light. When 10Ks first came out people thought they were too blue, now the bluer the better. I like the look of 10K, it looks natural, not like the abyss.

 

[the_anti_honda]

I believe that you can color up corals under damn near any light. I like actinics for only dawn dusk and not even so much for the reason of it. Its more like a little longer time to look at the tank.

 

[smatter]

I agree, my light just switched off and I wasn't done looking.

 

[Jose Antonio]

wov

wov

this is really nice

 

[saltycreefer]

nice tank mdt178. Awesome layout.

 

[gavin123]

37 cube

 

[the_anti_honda]

Thats one of the nicest "smaller sized" mixed reefs I have seen.

I like the SSB..

 

[gavin123]