carey
Aquarium Advice Addict
Hmm was hoping it would have eaten some of that ammonia up. Youre supposed to give it 24 hours though so maybe by tonight it will mostly be gone.
Buffy said:Ammonia - >4ppm
Nitrite - >5ppm
Nitrate-10ppm
pH-8.0
its a used fixture and mostlikly just a lamp if the one bulb works and the other is still on.
the 4 lamp is enough for LPS and what not but not enough for high light SPS and clams unless they are in the top shelf of your system. i'd look for a 6 lamp as you will light just as well as the MH fixture with alot less wattage and power saving
T5 Fluorescent Grow Light 6 Lamp Fixture Bulbs Veg 48" | eBay
brand new, its a good fixture, all you need to do is replace the lamps with some quality tubes liek g mann, ATI or KZ
you don't need the built in cooling for T5s, and if you want them, the fans are like $10
150watt halieds do nothing, i'd scratch that off the list, the novas are a good fixture just has mehish lamps
48" Metal Halide HQI Auqrium Lighting MH250W T5 HO 54W - eBay (item 280693904851 end time Jul-10-11 21:15:12 PDT)
The one listed below ends in 5 hours (and is only a 20 minute drive).
Aquaticlife 48" T5 HO Aquairium Lighting Fixture/Lunar | eBay
hailides are old school reefing, you will get the old school reefers tellign you they penetrate better and grow corals better, when the actual truth is T5s are just as powerful and actually grow SPS better then halides. SPS require more light spectrum that florescents produce more of, i sent you a link where there was a comparison done with growing corals under a 6 lamp T5 and under 2 x 250 watt halides and they grew the same where as the T5s grew the SPS slightly better, and they didn't reach towards they light source they branched out liek they are intended to.
a T5 lamp can penetrate to 30" which is 400watt MH territory some might even go 1000watt, all you'd need is to use quality lamps and icecapp ballasts that will over drive a 54 watt lamp to 80 watts. running the standard t5s you can penetrate to 30" but could only grow low light mushrooms at the bottom.
as far as the 150watt halide, they don't penetrate the water well and shouldn't be used on anythign deeper then a standard 20g
Thanks for the info, it explained alot. However, How do you know if something has icecapp ballasts? I just read the manual and stuff at Current USA's site and it doesn't say icecapp ballast. It says "highly efficient electronic ballast".