thanks to hara i now have my lighting dilemma narrowed down to 2 : both are Aqualine Buschke one is 2, 250 hqi with pc the other is 2,250 hqi with moonlight this is for my new 75 that will house clams and corals...opinions please will the moonlight give my tank enough blue light or do i have to give up the moonlight for now...thanks all.
help with lights
- Thread starter alrmc4
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loganj
Aquarium Advice Addict
I'm no expert on HQI, but my understanding is that if the bulbs are a high enough color temp, you don't have to run supplemental actinics. Eg...if your HQI bulbs were 20,000k. I believe you could take a regular old strip light and convert it to a 2x65w PC using a 2x59 Sylvania ballast from Lowes. That could be added later for actinics if you needed them. Probably cost you less than $100 to do that. Champion lighting also has moonlights, but I'm not sure of the price.
reefrunner69
Aquarium Advice Addict
Of the two, depending on the spectrum of the MH, I would choose the actinics over the moon light. The moonlight will not give enough blue light, IMO, but may not be necessary (depending on MH spectrum and visual preference).
loganj
Aquarium Advice Addict
You might want to look through the galleries here and check out how different color temp lights look. I think Kevin has some pics of his tank with different bulbs although they aren't HQI. You start with a yellowish hue at 5500k...to a whiter looking light around 10,000k...and into more of blue tint on the 20,000k lights. You might also be able to make your own moonlight with a couple of the 9 or 13w actinics. I believe www.ahsupply.com has them for less than $20 for the whole kit. The ballast/endcap is all one unit and relatively small...shouldn't be hard to incorporate in into your canopy.
hm, logan i had this converstion about color temps and how they appear in chat last week and I dug up a link from this site that showed varous MH bulbs and how they made the tank appear.
ill go look and see if I cant dig it up again.
ill go look and see if I cant dig it up again.
loganj
Aquarium Advice Addict
We should probably put that in the links list. It will come up again and again I'm guessing.
IMO, the 20,000k MH bulbs are too blue...they seem to wash out the colors in the pictures.
IMO, the 20,000k MH bulbs are too blue...they seem to wash out the colors in the pictures.
ok reefrunner reposting now my new thoughts ????:? maybe it would be better to go with separate pennants so that if one part goes out it can be fixed/there is no fan in the aquiline busche may be a bad idea/like the idea of not having light on tank so that it can be raised and lowered/the t0-5 looks interesting/hqi or reg mh?/vho pc? t5 or reg flor 
want to eventually have clams thanks! hubby is demanding final decision 
so it is all on my head. :?
want to eventually have clams thanks! hubby is demanding final decision so it is all on my head. :?
reefrunner69
Aquarium Advice Addict
That is certainly an option, but IMO, it is an unneccessary expense. The MH you get will be warrantied and if one has a prob, it will more than likely occur real soon, then the manufacturer will simply replace the entire unit.
Fans are easy to add yourself if need be, but if you don't want the trouble, there are other manufacturers that do put fans in the fixtures. I'm sure there are plenty of sites that will let you "build your own", choosing different options.
I agree I like the idea as well, but to be honest, I have never raised or lowered my pendant, it is a pain to get it right again, when I add new corals I adjust the photoperiod to acclimate new animals.
For a 75g I would probably go with 2 X 250W MH I am partial to the 10K Ushio bulbs, although Hamilton 10Ks and Aqualine Bucshke are comparable. I would also add some PC or VHO actinic.
With either the hqi or mogul MH you will be able to keep clams and SPS, what type lighting you use for actinic supplamentation would really be preference. I have no experience with T5 so I can't comment, for asthetics I prefer VHO to PC.
