Reef lighting.

[joe&rae]

I am building a 58 gal reef. It mesures 36"-18"-24". I am putting in a retro fit halide system, and was wandering if I should do one or two bulbs. I am going to be useing 175watt ballasts and twenty k lights. Both are single ended and both are the same system. My question is two bulbs too much or not. I will not have reflectors just solid with color on in side of the canopy. Let me know your opinions thanks

 

[ccCapt]

175w 20k bulbs suck as far as PAR output and with no reflectors being used I would say you will need 2.

 

[joe&rae]

would one HQI 150watt 20000k work or would i need two???

 

[ccCapt]

That's even less output than the 175w...so 2, but with a 24" deep tank you would have to watch where you place the corals.

 

[joe&rae]

OK so is there a big diff in a regular halige and a HQI???? i thought that HQI were stronger and would 250watt HQI be better

 

[ccCapt]

There is no difference between HQI/DE (double ended bulbs) and SE (single ended) mogul base bulbs except for how they connect to the base. The brand of bulb matters way more than the style of bulb. There are no SE 150w bulbs and no DE 175w bulbs, but there are both DE and SE in 250w. The most powerful 250w bulbs, in term of PAR (measured in PPFD - Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density), is an Iwasaki 65K SE bulb at 189 PPFD, followed by an XM 10K SE bulb at 182 PPFD and 3rd is an EVC 10K DE at 179 PPFD. Some SE bulbs perform better than DE's and some DE's perform better than an SE.

 

[cmor1701d]

Larry, you are just a fountain of information when it comes to lighting. Is this all coming from Vijay's research?
Isn't some of his research becoming a bit dated in that some manufacturers may have changed their bulb composition to increase PAR?
I've read his article comparing LEDs and so I bought the new PacSun units for my 125. They should be in next week

 

[ccCapt]

Cmor, all the #'s do come from Sanjay's Lighting site. What bulbs have changed? I try to keep up on the MH lighting and didn't see or hear of any manufacturer who changed their bulbs.

Those PacSuns look awesome, but they are WAY out of my price range. I don't know if I have $3,000 into my tank, let alone spend that on lights only.
Sanjay is also swapping out the 3x400w MH's over his 500g tank for LED's.
Here's his article for those who may not have read it.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2010/2/aafeature2

 

[Zer0]

What LED's cost 3k lol?

 

[cmor1701d]

Well they're not 3k, but they were over 2k. The PFO Solaris wa over 3k, but is no longer sold due to patent problems. I'm not sure how the new LED units are getting around that little problem. Possibly by NOT saying they are aquarium lights, but accent lighting or some such thing.
The PacSun units I am getting are made in Poland. I got them in a group buy on another forum for a pre-intro price.

You can see them at Pacific Sun Black Python BT EX 120W - MASTER - €760.00 : AquariumLed.eu!, Powerfull light for you reef aquarium!

 

[Zer0]

So now, do these LED's replace the regular lighting? Or are they just for aesthetics?

 

[ccCapt]

The PacSun LED's do everything. And I mean everything from replicating cloudy/rainy days, phases of the moon, pick your favorite K temp. They really look like an awesome setup.

I can't wait to see Cmor load us up with pics when he gets his.
Did you get 1 master unit and 2 slaves?

 

[Zer0]

Wow, now that sounds freakin sweet. I didn't know they actually had things like that for aquariums. I would definitely like to see those things hooked up.

 

[joe&rae]

Ok so do you all think that the 250watt would do better and should i get one or two!!

 

[melosu58]

Moved to General Hardware and equipment discussion.

 

[ccCapt]

2x250

 

[cmor1701d]

Yep, I master and 2 slaves. I figure I'll start it at at 50%. You can set something like 40 points during the day so you can start with a true sunrise/sunset effect with short periods of cloud cover and phases of the moon at night. It's the software that really makes this unit.
I plan on posting a thread right after I get my units.
I need to build a rack to hold them.
Right now I'm thinking of ripping a piece of plywood to size to fit inside the tank canopy (haven't had that on for years.
Then I'll tie the canopy to cables to the celing going to an an actuator that will raise/lower the entire canopy when I need to get in to clean.