Lighting help needed

[jcarlilesiu]

Hey everyone, just need some advice/opinions.

I have an existing well established 56 gallon (24" deep) planted tank with pressurized CO2. Recently, my current-usa satelite fixture ballast must of taken a vacation because one of the 2 lights isn't coming on. I tried different bulbs, no go.

Anyway, I have been wanting to upgrade the fixture for some time anyway because I dont' feel that this type of light has the ability to penetrate the water to supply enough light to my smaller plants. (my dwarf sag grows taller than wanted).

I have been looking for a HQI metal halide AND compact flourescent fixture. I like the way the water shimmers with the metal halide, but I am not sure that lighting is right for the freshwater planted tank. Thus, I have been looking for one with the compact flourescent as well. The lunar lights would be a nice touch as well.

Problem is, I can't find a light with all of this at 30". I have been able to find a 30" current-usa fixture with just the single metal halide in the center, but my tank also has the center brace which worries me. Will it impact the fixtures ability to spread light across the center of the aquarium like the longer compact flourescents does?

Anyway, your input/opinions are very welcome. I need to pick this light up this weekend for sure because the plants are going to start suffering soon with only one 65W CF bulb burning.

 

[mgamer20o0]

personally what i would do is ditch the idea of mh and look for some ho t5 set up. might not get the shimmer effect but its not as hot and puts out more light. make sure you get one where each bulb has a reflector. its your best option in my eyes.

 

[brutus]

yeah i liked the shimmer effect too until i seen the price of them. Then bought t5 ho to go along with the power compacts.

 

[jcarlilesiu]

Thanks for the opinions/advice.

I made my decision. I found a company out of california that will build custom fixtures. Though somewhat expensive, I think it will be the best.

Here is the specifications of the new fixture which has been built and is being shipped as we speak:

- (2) 150W HQI Metal Halide lights (10,000K)
- (4) 65W T5 lights (2 Atinic, 2 10000K, & 2 6500K so I can figure out what I want to use)
- (6) 1W blue LED lunar lights
- (2) rear exhaust fans (which they claim will keep the fixture cool to touch)
-Splash guard and legs included

The HQI bulbs will be on one switch/cord, 2 of the T5 will be on a switch/cord with the other 2 on a different switch/cord, and the lunars on their own. This will allow me to completely mimic dawn to dusk lighting rotations, example:

- Lunar lights on (Night time)
- Atinic lights come on lunars off (Dawn)
- Atinic lights stay on while T5 6500K come on (Morning)
- Atinic turn off, T5 stay on HQI turn on (High Sun)
and then in reverse for twilight.

Well, the whole setup cost me *cough*$550*cough*, which I suppose isn't that bad considering the cost of a name brand fixture which had all of that.

I will make another post regarding the quality of the build and the fixture itself once it arrives.

Oh, btw.. the company is called "Catalina Aquarium"

So far, extremely helpful, nice fair, and open to custom fixtures.

 

[czcz]

MH is totally usable by plants, though I have read some complain about the look of their tank being even more dependent on color temperature of the bulb, though I suspect this is more because you want the perfect look after dropping coin on MH (And I know I am wishcasting on your tank when you love the canopy, but imo MH pendants are the most impressive aquatic equipment pieces ever, even better than rimless tanks, except maybe for super thin T5HO pendants, which I have not seen in person yet.) If you're only getting all that CF because you think the MH won't be enough, I really think you should save on the CF. 30" wide is not that hard to light.

Even 2x150HQI by itself is lots of light, brother, but makes sense you need two with the brace, and I am guessing the cost of entry is not too different from 2x75w. It will be challenging and I think you'll probably find you end of progressing across them and still keep plants great while making your life easier. (Like left for a while, both for a while, right for a while.)

 

[jcarlilesiu]

Thanks for the response CZ.

I included the 4 65W T5 in the canopy to attempt to "fix" any color range problems I have with the (2) 10,000K MH bulbs. I was thinking that might be a little too yellow in color for my liking, thus why I may end up going with the atinic to try and whiten the color.

I know its a ton of light. Originally, the builder wanted to put two 250W MH in, and I was like "no way!", so we bumped it down to the 150W. If it still turns out to be too much light, I might through 75W bulbs in there (assuming thats fine for the ballast).

Because of the huge amounts of wattage those MH bulbs through, I may only run them for a couple of hours a day. Ill turn the T5s on for the majority of the plants needs and just turn on the MH when I want the shimmering effect of the tank.

Anyway... thanks for posting. I am going from 120 Watts to 560 Watts. Crazy.

I will ease into it with delayed on off timers and shortened photo periods to make sure I don't have some crazy algea growing that is going to climb out of the tank at night and kill my cats. Haha

As far as pendants go... I considered them. Problem is, where my tank is located, I dont have anything close to a powersource on the ceiling above. The fiance is all about hiding cords and clean lines so I couldn't string the cable across the ceiling or run it straight up the back. I like the look of the pendants, just didn't think it was very plausible.

 

[czcz]

You and your lady are right -- without a way to hide the cords (those cord things that look like molding?) pendant just doesn't look right :/

Gonna be fun to watch this version of your tank

 

[jcarlilesiu]

Well, the light finally came in. YAY!

I just wanted to post a follow-up with a few photos. The light itself is fantastic and much better quality than I expected. The quality of build has to equal or surpass that of coralife or other name brand reef type light fixtures.

The finish is a shiny black with well finished end covers. The splash guard is tempered glass and the reflectors are well mirrored and very shiny.

The name of the fixture as noted is "Ultralight" made by Catalina Aquarium.

I went ahead and organized my very very tiny storage area under the aquarium and was happy with out much junk I got crammed under there but well organized and accessible for maintainence.

My plants are a bit ragged after several weeks without adequate lighting after my current-usa fixture failed.

Well anyway... here they are.

 

[jcarlilesiu]

More pictures of equipment storage

 

[jcarlilesiu]

Alright, the new equipment has been running for just over a week and so far so good. The plants are showing excellent growth and frequent pearling.

I did a water change (about 45%) on Thursday, and dosed the following:

CSM+B
1/4 teaspoon of Nitrate
1/4 teaspoon of Phosphate
1 teaspoon of Pottasium

Took tests this morning just to see where I stand.

Ph: 6.6
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10 PPM
Phospate: 2.0 PPM
KH: 6

Im guessing my plants are uptaking quite a bit of nitrates. I believe I am a little low compared to the phosphates. Think I should dose Nitrates again?

By the way, I was experiencing tons of daily pearling from my watersprite before I did a water change, now I am not seeing it so much. I would expect it to increase, not decrease. Any theories?

 

[rkilling1]

How are you dosing?

All at once or a couple of times a week? All on the same day?

 

[jcarlilesiu]

I dose CSM+B daily. I dose pottasium weekly and nitrates and phosphates twice a week.

 

[jcarlilesiu]

Just another update for anybody following this thread that may be considering this light.

I have a problem. When the fixture initially shipped, I was having a hard time getting the ballast to fire the metal halide bulbs. The ballast has an internal "protect" mode which I assume to be a good thing for fire safety and the like. From my understanding, it also won't allow the bulbs to be reheated in the case of a power failure until the bulbs have had enough time to cool down preventing damage to the bulbs.

All of this is great, with one exception. The ballast is very sensative to this protect mode. Usually, the ballast once plugged in will attempt to heat the bulbs like normal... but usually, it fails, the bulbs go out and the ballast enters protect mode. If I cycle the power on and off quickly on the ballast, usually the bulbs will fire and continue burning within a couple of tries. Once they start heating, they are fine until I turn them off.

I have been in contact with catalina aquarium on several occasions. Thus far they have been very helpful. They sent out a new ballast assuming that the original one was bad. I was excited when it arrived, but low and behold, same issue. Plug it in and the lights flicker once and then go out while the ballast enters protect mode.

I called them back today to explain the continued problem. Since these lights are on a timer in conjunction with my pressurized CO2, I am concerned that if the lights don't fire and stay lit, that my CO2 levels will get too high in the aquarium effecting my livestock. Catalina is going to send out new bulbs to me to try to resolve the issue, thinking that its possible that the bulbs are the problem sending the ballast into protect mode.

Like I said, they have been very good to work with, but I am becoming concerned that this fixture isn't going to work the way I intended (on a timer) and I will have to physically get the lights on each day.

Anybody with experience in electrical engineering or ballasts input is greatly appreciated.