Metal Halides??

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i think we were all suggesting the coralvue bulbs because of the kit you can get that includes them. you can get a coralvue 250 watt electronic ballast, socket,reflector and bulb for about 200.00. this could possibly be mounted in your existing canopy.

you would want to have a fan blowing across the top of your water or just venting your canopy in some way. MH are much , much hotter than PC.

steve r
 
Is there a specific site where i can find that Coralvue 250 watt electronic ballast, socket,reflector and bulb? I saw a site that someone recommended 2 4" fans. One question. I would need 2 correct for both sides of my tank and also 2 ballasts? I just want to see if I need another Surge protector b/c right now mine are full but if I do this I will have 2 outlets freed up which can be used for this but I need anothe outlet for the Actinic blue lights. Thanks
 
Just to clarify something, First off, when building your own hood fans arent necessary, someone told me that I HAD TO HAVE A FAN! I highly disagree, this may be partly because my tank is in the cool basement, and I live in a colder climate (Wisconsin if you dont want to waste precious eye movement to look under my user name to see where I live), well any way I have 220 watts of PC and 500 watts of MH for my 75 gal. Yes it does make a notable increase in temperature, however in my tank, I still have to have the heater on when all the lights are on.

**NOTE: I currently haven't been using the Metal Halides as someone suggested to cut back on the intense light to encourage coralline algae growth.

Oh, and I'll take the picture now, and get it posted soon
 
Cut back on using the metal halides I thought that is the best in the industry to use that is odd.
 
Sorry, there are no good shots of the inside of the hood... I guess digital cameras dont like to look right at 10k Metal halides... oh well...

Just PC no flash
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Just PC with flash
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(I dont like the scum in the back.... thats why I prefer the first picture...)

Metal Halides are Powered Up
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Here is a vent, there are vents like this on both sides
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And here is a top vent **note the fan which was intended to be put there**
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Without the fan there is a considerable amount of convection going on, the heat rises out of the hole in the top, and sucks cool air in through the side vents. The side vents are just bought at Home Depot For a few cents a piece, I believe they are for attic ventalation.

Here is a Isometric view (sorry CAD term... I'm a geek, what can I say?) here the hood door is upen *I am getting ready for feeding*
I did not shut off the lights for this...
Also notice the vent on the inside behind the left Metal Halide and just under the PC
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Same as above, just front view
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The fish dont like cameras... but the like food, they're a bit confused...
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Front view Full power no flash
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Same as above but with flash
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If you have any other questions ask, or if you want more pictures of the inside of the hood, just ask, I will have time to take pictures at night when the Halides are off.
 
Also something I just noticed, take a look at the progression of the urchin (on the left side) over time, as it likely hates the intensity of the halides, moves towards the bottom of the tank under that rock.
Also I'm a bit sad, my blenny didnt show up in any of those pictures... oh well
 
Cut back on using the metal halides I thought that is the best in the industry to use that is odd.

Actually its great for corals etc, but it really does make a difference, I had metal halides going for about three months, and all that did was encourage growth of hair algae etc. Once I shut off the MH, in about two months or so all my new DIY live rock has purple start growing first then shortly after a Bright Red shows up... and the growth is far faster with just the 220watts of PC than the added 500 watts of MH.

A friend of mine on another forum said that most coralline algae grows best at lower levels of like, which is why in set ups where you have halides you are likely to see coralline algae sprout up where there is less direct light.

It sucks in a sense watching a nice Halide retrofit go to waste (for the time being) while I just have the PC going, but durring the summer, I wont be running the halides at all, to keep energy costs lower and to keep temps down (in my house).
 
I run my MH 250w x 2 for 12 hours a day and don't have a problem with hair algae at all. In fact, it's been up and running for almost 9 months. I think there are just a combination of factors that contribute to the unwanted growth of hair algae. In addition to the MH, I also run the Coralife 4x65w retro pc as well.
I do, however, have slower growth of coraline since using the MH. With the proper canopy and ventilation (fans and open back), my temp only fluctuates 2 dgrees in a single day.

Mike
 
See thats the problem that I had though, Hair algae started right before I added halides... and they only made that stuff spread really fast, I'm not saying that the Halides caused the hair algae, because "correlation does not mean causation" (my psych professor said "if you take anything away from this course, remember corellation does not mean causation")

But it did contribute to the growing of it... (at one point the hair algae was about 7 inches in length, before I removed every rock, scrubbed it until the hair was gone, then soaked it in hot tap water.

Well that solved that problem for sure... :)

But yeah temp doesnt even change that much for me, only at night the temp falls a few degrees, but thats only because I have a 250 watt heater, and I should have gotten a 350 or something, the 250 struggles at night sometimes...
 
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