questions on MH lighting

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glaspak845

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Nov 27, 2002
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I currently have a 20 gallon tank doing good. Have one fish in it and some inverts. However my question pretains to future plans. Im already planning a 65 gallon tank to upgrade to somewhere in the future. I have a few questions to help with my planning:

I would like to light it with an Ice Cap 400watt MH retro setup. Where can i get the best deal online?

I emailed Ice Cap and they said their new 400watt MH ballasts will be dimmable, what do i need to dim it? Is this recommended?

Im new to MH lighting, so im confused on german bulbs, radiums, etc., what is preferred/recommended? I like the look of a 10K bulb though, will this be ok?

Im mainly looking for the retro kit so i can build my own hood for the tank. Is this common?


Thanks in advance,

Mike
 

quantim0

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Feb 19, 2002
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i'm trying to do the same thing but on a smaller scale. i'd check out www.hellolights.com . they sell a ton of retrofit kits for building your own hoods and they are relatively cheap.

i don't think a single 400W MH would be the best. i would split it up into 2 175MH and two PC or VHO flourescents. i've seen tanks run on 10000K lighting but with the additional bulbs you can alter you options a bit with actinics and such. what are you trying to keep under the lights? cause that would be a big decision on what you are going to need from your lights. if you're going to be keeping SPS and some LPS you might want to step up into the land of 250W halides.
 
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glaspak845

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Im not planning on keeping many corals in there as soon as the tank is fit to house them. Corals may come two or three years down the road, im in no real hurry for them. I forgot to include a few things in the first post. I have the PC (65w) fixture which i will build into the hood i will be building too. I also have two NO flourcent lights which i was thinking of possibly also building one of them in to simulate moon, dawn, and dusk. The other thing i forgot to include in the first post is the new tank dimensions. 36" x 18" x 24". As for what i will be keeping under the 400, at the start just fish and live rock. My next step, would be softies, then the harder corals. However i really only want to buy the lights once so if (2) 250's are better then ill go with them. Its just almost double the price for two ballasts so i was thinking the 400w. Do you think it will light unevenly?

Thanks again,

Mike
 

quantim0

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Feb 19, 2002
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if you wanted you could just put the 400W or a 250 MH in the middle of the hood. however, the hoods that i have seen on longer tanks used two halides. i read something recently that says you shold use 1 MH for every 2 feet of tank space.

i think that two 175W halides would be the best because that would allow the most even lighting in the tank and you wouldn't have to worry about corals on the far sides of the tank getting sufficient light.
 

glaspak845

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if i go with (2) MH's im gonna get the 250's. Ill need them in the future for some of the coral i'd like to get. Do you think i could just get one 250 to start for the LR, fish, and inverts, and then buy the second one in the future when i decide to get sps? Will the 250 be enough for soft corals? Another question is, i am totally new to MH's, do they come with everything i need to hook them up? Do they just plug in the wall or do i need special wiring? What kind of bulb do i need, i really like the ice cap setups, is there a preferred Ice Cap setup?

Thanks,

Mike
 
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