Approve or Disapprove

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OldManOfTheSea

AC Members
Mar 21, 2007
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Hillsborough NC
OK ladies and gentlemen, its time now to agree or not, thumbs up or down on this lighting spec for my to be SPS reef tank 8'x2'x2' with a DSB of 4" to 4.5"


The light quote is: for the metal halides - 3 250 watt (Screw in bulbs) (Retrofit reflectors with Reef Optix 1 ballasts. These reflectors allow the heat to dissapate. These lights will be spaced out to equally cover your aquarium, placed in the middle of the tank

For the T-5's: for the backround fill lights I recommend putting 6 48" atinic lights. Placing 4 lights on the front and 2 on the back. These will give you very good fill lights to complement the metal halides. The ballast ( 3 of them) are IceCap units. The end caps are waterproof and also by IceCap. I'm not sure who manufactures the reflectors are by, but they are highly polished units from I think IceCap. The bulbs I was thinking about are 48" 54watt atinic.

Buddy
 
Sounds okay, except for the amount of bulbs. With those reflectors, you'll need 4 halide lamps to cover an 8' expanse, unless you want dim ends or striping. Different reflectors would allow you to cover more space with those same 3 lamps, though. Lumenarc/Lumenmax or better, Lumenbright reflectors would allow for this, but they are bulky and require a lot more space.
 
So if I had Lumenarc/Lumenmax, rather then Lumenbright reflectors and three 250 NH would do well, ???

Buddy
 
Since you're running IceCaps you can use UVL tubes that will burn at 85W each as opposed to 54W.
 
OldManOfTheSea said:
So if I had Lumenarc/Lumenmax, rather then Lumenbright reflectors and three 250 NH would do well, ???

Buddy
Click to expand...

Yes, that should work, though the Lumenbrights actually punch more down overall than Lumenarcs or Lumenmaxes. Again, these are all relatively bulky reflectors (the lumenbrights being more so, IME). Be sure to choose a more intense bulb, too, which will prevent you from having to increase the wattage. If you want more of a blue spectrum in your lamps, like 20000K, you may have to upgrade to 400w to get the intensity. For the T5s, any of the 48" 54w lamps will overdrive to ~85w, not necessarily just the UVL lamps. They just happen to be the only brand that lists the standard/overdriven wattages and their lamps seem to hold up better to being overdriven. Be sure to look into good reflectors for your T5s, as well. I recommend IceCap's own reflectors.
 
Amphiprion, I already email James on the change I would require Lumenbrights if this to offer me a far better chance to do what I would like, of course I would tell James later that the SPS corals which require a greater amount of light, will be in the 24"x24" area of that reflector. I found an article on this, but like I said, im no idea as yet to what im looking at, in the identification of these type of equipment.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-06/review/index.php

Being there a number of sizes, which one should I look to attain?

Buddy

And Thanks
 
For your application (and the fact that you only want 3 fixtures), the full size lumenbright (not the mini) is what you'll want. You'll also want the model that accommodates a DE lamp (which is what I believe you wanted to use). Just be sure you do have enough room to mount these high enough. I noted the same thing in the article when we used them at a local LFS. You have to get some height on these reflectors.
 
The spec suggestion for my lighting is not of my own chosen for I only understood through the years that four MH are to be used, but then again, there can be any number of combinations of lighting that could work here, and I can only go by what im hearing from others in this matter.

So it is the Large LumenBright 20” x 20” x 9” that I would require here? I will pass this to James, he already know about the idea change in this matter. Besides, those reflectors he selected are cheap and were discontinued, and the company wanted to be rid of those, and James was getting them for a very cheap price.

Yes, i wanted from the beginning DE MH, James selected the screw in, is there that much difference from the two, other then that I would require a protective glass on the lamps due to the strong UV or whatever its called again. On the height part of these reflectors, is also why im waiting before ordering a canopy build, I need to know the height they need to be, I believe that the T5`s will require the height of about 10" from the suffer of the tanks water line, is this correct? What height will the reflectors need to be and the MH bulbs height above the water line? And should i look to go back to my original idea of having DE MH bulbs?

Buddy
 
The T5s can actually be closer, assuming there isn't significant splash. The halides should be about 16" to get the highest coverage (not necessarily the brightest intensities, however.) At the store I worked at, we used 2 to cover an 8ft raceway. The edges were dim, but the two covered ~6ft very well. As far as DE vs single ended/mogul, that is more of a preference than anything. You can find lamps of each type that outperform others. I would honestly use whatever is the most available and at a reasonable price (which usually means SE/mogul). Again, you have a lot of options available. It would be best to look through the site I suggested earlier and find a decent bulb/ballast combo that is intense and gives you the look you want. I simply suggested these reflectors because you could get by with less and still have, well, more.
 
So on the lighting specs, the only change to be made is the MH reflectors to the large LumenBright (20" x 20" x 9") and all will be completed on light selections for the 240. Thanks

Buddy
 
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