mh lighting. HELP!!

[Bushman]

OK after last night's talk I looked into a hamilton beach mh light. I need help.

My tank: 80 gal. 48h x 15w x 24h. I am going to scrap my two Coralife 96w quad pin lights for an adequate light for future species.

A couple of questions:

1. Is the Hamilton Beach 48" mh ballast good? It has 2 250w mh and 2 96 w actinic (spelling?) blues. I found it on captivereefs.com for $625.00. I do not want to be limited by lighting. What do you think?

2. If I was to get something like this, how do you guys handle the water temp variations? My 2 96w pc's will heat the tank from 78.3 to 79.3 by the end of the 14 hour day of lighting. Granted it is on the glass top. I removed the back 1/2 of the top glass but need the other half to lay the lights on. If I get these new lights, they will be in the same situation. I could only imagine the temp variation with that much light. What if I raised it from the top by 6" or so by attaching it to the top of the canopy? HELP! Chiller? I hope not.

 

[bill0298]

A buddy of mine put cooling fans in his canopy to keep the heat from building up under the lights....

 

[Sparky]

The MH's will increase your tempature for sure. They produce much more heat than a flourescent tube ever will. I also would think about not laying the lights on top of the glass. How far are the bulbs up in the fixture? Those MH lamps could cause the glass top to really get hot, and if water was to splash on the glass top you could have the glass break.

Mike

 

[EL Diablo]

My MH heat up the entire area by the tank.

My tank was already running hot at around 82 before I had the MH lights.

I picked up a chiller. Problem solved and I never worry about temp.

The MH can increase your tank temp. drastically.
Good luck.

 

[mojoreef]

It will get hot for sure, make sure your dont set the new lights on top of the glass. The best bet is to suspend them about 8 inches above the water line. and take the glass tops off for air circulation. If you have a sump the first method for reducing temp is to get a fan blowing on the surface of the water of the sump, if that doesnt work a chiller is in your future.
Do not blow air directly or over the MH's it will screw up the temp of the bulb and the bulb will burn a different color.


Mike

 

[captivereefs]

THe hamilton fixture has a acyrlic splash shield to gaurd against splashs so you can run an open top. The hood also has (2) 4" fans to help with heat issues. Heat could still be a very big problem though. Every tank is different so it is hard to say but i would expect a increase in temprature of at least 3-4 degrees minimum.