I got this light from a guy who is well known on my reef club site for being quite the DIYer. Anyway, I've taken this description from his ad: It's an "Odyssea 48" Fixture... ballasts went out so I replaced all ballasts with NEW real ballasts, NEW ignitors, NEW capacitors... MH ballasts in custom slimline remote ballast box with dual cooling fans... NEW T5 Ballast inside the Fixture... 3 power cords on ballast box for individual timers... 2x150w 20,000k HQI bulbs.... 4x39w T5 HO Actinic bulbs..."
So, my questions are:
1. would it be better to have 2 actinic T5s & 2 10K than the current 4 actinics?
2. aren't 20K HQI bulbs really high in the blue spectrum? So would I get better results with 14K or even 10K?
3. The tank looks gorgeous, love that sparkle and dappling effect in the water! However, it seems to be shaded a lot. Is this just a normal MH thing that I will get used to? Or does this maybe have to do with the bulbs as mentioned above? Or should I try going without the egg crates on top? Kindof scared to do that, don't want any jumpers.
4. For right now, the light is up on it's legs on the tank. However, I want to suspend it so that it would be level with our canopy, which we'll remove the "lid" from. That way we have the look of the canopy and the canopy would help to direct the light into the tank more, so it's not spilling out so much. Can you recommend a suspension kit for me that will work with this light and also be safe to use on something attached to the wall because I have high ceilings?
And yes, I do realize that I should have gone with 2x 250s for my tank depth, but this light was better than my PCs and the price was right for our budget.
Thanks in advance!
So, my questions are:
1. would it be better to have 2 actinic T5s & 2 10K than the current 4 actinics?
2. aren't 20K HQI bulbs really high in the blue spectrum? So would I get better results with 14K or even 10K?
3. The tank looks gorgeous, love that sparkle and dappling effect in the water! However, it seems to be shaded a lot. Is this just a normal MH thing that I will get used to? Or does this maybe have to do with the bulbs as mentioned above? Or should I try going without the egg crates on top? Kindof scared to do that, don't want any jumpers.
4. For right now, the light is up on it's legs on the tank. However, I want to suspend it so that it would be level with our canopy, which we'll remove the "lid" from. That way we have the look of the canopy and the canopy would help to direct the light into the tank more, so it's not spilling out so much. Can you recommend a suspension kit for me that will work with this light and also be safe to use on something attached to the wall because I have high ceilings?
And yes, I do realize that I should have gone with 2x 250s for my tank depth, but this light was better than my PCs and the price was right for our budget.
Thanks in advance!
