Help me decide on lights

harleyguy · Mar 9, 2008

Most of you already know that my plans changed a little and I bought a smaller tank than I planed, I'll get into that later. The new tank is 96"x48"x36" 720g and I'm having a really hard time deciding on how to light it. I want SPS so I know I need bright light, here are my options.

1. 4 400W MH with Lumenarc III reflectors and 12 54W T5's

Arranged like this:

_____ _____
_____ _____
_____ _____
 X X X X
_____ _____
_____ _____
_____ _____

2. 8 400W MH with Icecap reflectors HQI Bulbs and IceCap Hqi Dimmable Ballasts and 10 54W T5's

The thought here would be to run the T5's the whole time the MH's are on and 1 hour before and after. The MH's would start out dimmed for 3 hours then 100% for 4 hours the dimmed for 3 hours (dimming cuts power to 50%) effectively even though I have a ton of light I'm not using any more power than the 4 MH's running 11 hours a day.

Arranged like this

||x||x||x||x||
||x||x||x||x||

3. Load as many T5's as I can put over the tank. Do I really need to draw a bunch of lines???

I'd love to hear comments, opinions and suggestions.

Thanks

harleyguy · Mar 9, 2008

I'm leaning that way myself... I think I would have the best spread of light, with the while using as little power as possible... Well that is unless I went with LED but 10K is out of my price range for lighting... If you know what I mean... The only thing with Option 2 is I will likely have to get a slightly larger chiller....

blind1993 · Mar 9, 2008

i say

(side of tank)
____X___X______
_______X________
____X____X_______
______X___________

you kinda get it? the lines are t5hos.

harleyguy · Mar 9, 2008

I think I'm following you, but more like this:

_____ _______
__x_____x____
_____x_____x__
__x_____x____
_____________

From front to back (long way and I'm talking MH here)

4 rows:
1st row 2 MH's
2nd row 1 MH
3rd row 2 MH's
4th row 1 MH

Cram as many T5's in between as I can...

Is this what you had in mind?

blind1993 · Mar 9, 2008

Barbara;149520 wrote: Yeah, you might have to get a bigger chiller, but the light from the MHs will be more evenly distributed. Blind's option has potential too; you might be able to vary the MHs:

II II X II II X II II
..X..... X...... X
II II X II II X II II

(something like that?)

I love the thought of those dimmable ballasts. Do you have to have a separate controller to work the dimmer?

also my way not much light will get out of the tank.
you will probably have to get 2 more mhs for my way to work.

ericmcj31 · Mar 9, 2008

All these X's and lines make me thing back to football days lol

blind1993 · Mar 9, 2008

Harleyguy;149525 wrote: I think I'm following you, but more like this:

_____ _______
__x_____x____
_____x_____x__
__x_____x____
_____________

From front to back (long way and I'm talking MH here)

4 rows:
1st row 2 MH's
2nd row 1 MH
3rd row 2 MH's
4th row 1 MH

Cram as many T5's in between as I can...

Is this what you had in mind?

also add fans between the mh to get alot of circulation in the hood.

skriz · Mar 9, 2008

t5's won't cut it for that depth. I would do 8x 400w, but I would go with SE bulbs.

Come by and I'll show you what 400w looks like on that depth.

harleyguy · Mar 9, 2008

Barbara;149520 wrote: Yeah, you might have to get a bigger chiller, but the light from the MHs will be more evenly distributed. Blind's option has potential too; you might be able to vary the MHs:

II II X II II X II II
..X..... X...... X
II II X II II X II II

(something like that?)

I love the thought of those dimmable ballasts. Do you have to have a separate controller to work the dimmer?

That isn't a bad Idea kind of what blind and I were talking about. I think I would only go with 4 rows of MH's though... I feel that host MH's can get a good 24" spread. As far as the controller... I've got an Aquacontroller III Pro that has dimmer control... At least I think it does... let me check...

blind1993 · Mar 9, 2008

i say get your 8 mhs and however many t5s line them up in your canopy one the floor and see what looks the best on your roof.

harleyguy · Mar 9, 2008

Skriz;149530 wrote: t5's won't cut it for that depth. I would do 8x 400w, but I would go with SE bulbs.

Come by and I'll show you what 400w looks like on that depth.

The reason for the DE bulbs is the Hqi dimmable ballast... and the reflectors... I could go with the Lumenarc III mini's, but that would leave me less room for T5 supplementation. And Premium Aquatics has a pretty good package deal on the IceCap stuff. It come with the new IceCap Ballast, New Reflector, and there new DE Bulb in 10K, 14K, or 20K... I figured I'd go 20K.

skriz · Mar 9, 2008

with 8 mh you can mix the bulbs to get awesome par and awesome colours.

You would only need the t5 for dusk/dawn, and therefore won't need the icecap; you can get away with a cheap workhorse ballast. Heck, you could use pc's for this since you don't need them for par, just colour.

skriz · Mar 9, 2008

btw, you can use the hqi ballast on SE bulbs to overdrive the bulbs and push more par!

blind1993 · Mar 9, 2008

Skriz;149536 wrote: with 8 mh you can mix the bulbs to get awesome par and awesome colours.

You would only need the t5 for dusk/dawn, and therefore won't need the icecap; you can get away with a cheap workhorse ballast. Heck, you could use pc's for this since you don't need them for par, just colour.

yea but pcs have to be replaced more often then t5ho and t5hos are smaller and easier to fit many in the canopy.

harleyguy · Mar 9, 2008

blind1993;149533 wrote: i say get your 8 mhs and however many t5s line them up in your canopy one the floor and see what looks the best on your roof.

OK I got the, get the 8 MH's and as many T5's... I got line them up in my canopy... this is where I go a little fuzzy... One one the floor:confused2: ? and see what looks best on the roof?:confused2: :huhsign:

skriz · Mar 9, 2008

blind1993;149538 wrote: yea but pcs have to be replaced more often then t5ho and t5hos are smaller and easier to fit many in the canopy.

WRONG!!!

The only reason it's reccomended that you change the bulbs is for par and colour shift.

You don't need these for par or primary colouration; just dusk/dawn

blind1993 · Mar 9, 2008

Harleyguy;149539 wrote: OK I got the, get the 8 MH's and as many T5's... I got line them up in my canopy... this is where I go a little fuzzy... One one the floor:confused2: ? and see what looks best on the roof?:confused2: :huhsign:

i would set them on the canopy facing the roof. then change them around to see what you like as far as heat, cluterness, accessablity, and apearence on the roof to see how far your lights will reach.

blind1993 · Mar 9, 2008

Skriz;149541 wrote: WRONG!!!

The only reason it's reccomended that you change the bulbs is for par and colour shift.

You don't need these for par or primary colouration; just dusk/dawn

oh ok my bad.

harleyguy · Mar 9, 2008

Skriz;149536 wrote: with 8 mh you can mix the bulbs to get awesome par and awesome colours.

You would only need the t5 for dusk/dawn, and therefore won't need the icecap; you can get away with a cheap workhorse ballast. Heck, you could use pc's for this since you don't need them for par, just colour.

The IceCap's aren't for the T5's (although I already have them for the T5's:roll: ). The IceCaps I'm referring to are the new Dimmable 400W hqi MH ballasts. Again, the thought here is to dim them in the morning and evening (saving on power) and running full strength during the middle of the day. Basically like this.

8AM T5's ON
9AM MH's ON Dimmer ON (when dimmed they run at 50% power)
12PM MH's ON Dimmer OFF
4PM MH's ON Dimmer ON
7PM MH's OFF
8PM T5's OFF

As for the MH's using different temp bulbs... Don't you think the spacing of the bulbs will cause a checkerboard like affect? Think of it this way 2 400W MH's over a 48" tank, the bulb on the right is a 10K the bulb on the left is a 20K what's that going to look like?

harleyguy · Mar 9, 2008

blind1993;149542 wrote: i would set them on the canopy facing the roof. then change them around to see what you like as far as heat, cluterness, accessablity, and apearence on the roof to see how far your lights will reach.

:doh: I get it... man that's going to be one heavy canopy... LOL

Help me decide on lights

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