SPS Lighting Question

[jda]

BTW - I have MH ballasts that are older than my kids. One of them is driving now. I know that folks like to talk longevity with other light sources, but I have had great luck not having to rebuy MH gear.

 

[malx]

Biminins need ballasts. M81 for the 150W and M80 for the 250W. I would not do the 250W unless you want to crank it up to 11. The Hamiltons are nice and have nice long cords. The hum a bit (about like a return pump) and can get warm, but you can mount them remotely - I keep mine in the stand since I need the heat and I cannot hear them.

I use 14K Phoenix and 20K Radiums (different tanks) without T5s. I just turn them on/off with light timers. I have nothing against T5s along with MH, but I just would rather burn another MH rather than have the same wattage in T5s. If you want to abandon the T5s for just Haildes, then you will need reflectors that spread better, but this is a bigger jump than what you are doing. Personally, I would use MH and T5 for now and see how that goes and if you feel like jumping up to 2x250W MH on larger reflectors some day, then you will have a good bit of experience and will know what to expect.

The ballasts will put out a bit of heat. The bulbs will put out more. The heat is TOTALLY easy to mitigate, but it does need to be mitigated or you can get in trouble. Just build in some fans into your DIY setup. Here in Colorado, I welcome the heat all but for about three weeks in July when I need to keep my stand doors open - nothing else. If we run the air (which is not often since it gets down into the 50s most night and the attic fan will keep the house cool most of the day), then I don't even need to do keep the doors open. In Missouri where it was high 70s at night with 80+% humidity, it was about three months and I had to use fans and keep the stand doors open. The rest of the time, the heaters work less and the heat is a blessing. I have no idea how this will do in Vegas, which is one reason that I suggested the 150W over the 250W since they make less heat. With the T5s you might only need to run the MH 4-5 hours a day so that will help too. If you turn a fan on as soon as the MH come on, they usually stay plenty cool - if you wait until they get hot, then the cooling can lag.

I was able to keep 30G breeders cool with 400W MH over them with just fans, so you should have no problem with more volume and less wattage.

Ok cool. Thanks for all of the tips. First step is gunna be to mount the new T5 fixture to see what kind of room I have. I'll keep everyone posted as to what happens as the week progresses.

I'm in Vegas by the way, so I don't need the heat [emoji23]

It does get cold here in the winter though, below freezing at night.


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[Potatohead]

How can you have room for halide reflectors but not for the Kessils?

Sunpowers rock, good choice.

 

[malx]

How can you have room for halide reflectors but not for the Kessils?

Sunpowers rock, good choice.

Because of the mounting options but I'm going to see if I can build a custom mount for the kessils first. I also thought that those Bimini reflectors didn't need ballasts but now that they do I may try to stick with the Kessils.


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[jda]

As long as the humidity is low, you can evaporate and keep stuff cool. Heat and 80+% with no AC is a problem, but most folks in those kind of climates have AC anymore.

One of the locals got a 6 or 8 bulb ATI, rewired it so that the two middle bulbs could be removed and put some Kessils in there. He uses them like you, just for some shimmer since he does not like what they do to his acropora.

 

[malx]

As long as the humidity is low, you can evaporate and keep stuff cool. Heat and 80+% with no AC is a problem, but most folks in those kind of climates have AC anymore.

One of the locals got a 6 or 8 bulb ATI, rewired it so that the two middle bulbs could be removed and put some Kessils in there. He uses them like you, just for some shimmer since he does not like what they do to his acropora.

Oh really? Cool idea but I think I could swing a side mounting option with them or possibly halides. But the more I read about halide the more I see they should probably be used as my
Primary grow light opposed to T5. Really good call here about the reef brite not being what I wanted.


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[swk]

There is no disco with reefbrites. They are single
Color. Or 50/50 cool white and 450nm blues.

 

[swk]

Also - I will put a plug in for t5s. I know halides are very popular, but for par for watt, t5 is a great choice all around and is a proven sole light source for acropora.

Look man, they'll all grow coral. The halides and t5s are a no brainer. It's just a matter of whether or not the heat factor of the halides are a plus or minus for you and your location/climate.

 

[malx]

SPS Lighting Question

Alright everyone. Here's what I ended up doing!

I have removed all lighting which included my 4, T5 bulbs and my two Kessil A360w and replaced it with a 6 bulb ATI Sunpower and two Kessil A80s. I'm running 4 blue plus, one purple plus, and one actinic. During the day when all lights are on, the kessils are turned up to 90% and full white (they aren't that powerful) and I must say the lighting on the tank looks spectacular!!!

It's got the perfect ammout of shimmer and white light and with the mostly blue diffused light, it looks like a real reef with the sun blaring in!

I chose to swap out my kessils with the smaller ones because of the form factor of them. If you notice, the A80s are low profile lights meant for a nano tank. The position of where the gooseneck mounts makes it perfect to mount them in a sideways manner.

Thanks everyone for the advice. Wil see how this goes.

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[murphreef]

looks really cool im sure in person even better!

 

[malx]

looks really cool im sure in person even better!

Thank you!!


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