Lighting Upgrade - adding metal halides

[sammy33]

I have been using all T5 lighting for about a year and a half now on my 125g reef tank. My current T5 setup (8x39w IceCap Reflectors, Advance Ballast) does a great job with my soft corals and LPS corals. The problem is since I originally set up my reef tank I have gotten interested in SPS!

Now of course I have some SPS in my tank under T5's that are doing fairly good. By that I mean that they are growing well and their colors are ok. I would like them to grow well and have great colors and I think this is going to require a lighting increase.

I have had good results with my 4 row T5 system and originally planned on having 6 rows of T5's with an upgrade. Well now I decided to do something else...

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I got stuck at this point in the install because home depot was already closed. :doh: I did get to test one of the pendants over the water and the light is quite nice...missed the shimmer.

I am adding three 150w HQI lights to my T5 setup. I simply moved two rows of T5's to the back and am installing these pendants in the middle. A single and a dual Galaxy electronic ballast run three 150w 10K Aqualine Bushcke lamps. :thumbs:

I am keeping all of my T5's and just changing some lamps out - my row of Midday 6000k lamps for Actinic+ and my row of Aquablue for Pure Actinic lamps. So before:
http://samsreef.com/images/stories/t5-setup-07.gif" alt="" />

and after I finish
[IMG]http://samsreef.com/images/stories/t5-hqi-setup-08.gif" alt="" />

This is the best and most compatible (with my motorized lift) lighting upgrade I could come up with. These pendants are the smallest 150w HQI reflectors at 6" W x 3" H and 11" long meaning they fit inside my short canopy with the canopy ceiling only 7.5 inches above the water. This will put the HQI's about 4.5 inches off the water.

Adding two more rows of T5's would have been a bit easier but I think I will get more out of this in the long run. I am hoping this will give me at least a 20% boost in PAR. With most 150w systems I have tested they seem to be capable of this.

I will post more pictures as I finish up including old and new PAR readings. If this upgrade doesn't get me the numbers I am looking for the next step is 3 x 250w and a chiller. :confused2:

 

[jetchris]

wow, looks good , are you a little concerned about your soon to come electric bill ?

 

[cameron]

Going back to the dark side I see. I have already decided if the T5s don't work this year, next year will be three 175w Iwasaki MHs.

 

[tnyga]

Your gonna have some light now

 

[budsreef]

Very cool! So will this bring the water to a complete boil or just a simmer.

 

[glxtrix]

that setup is going to rock! 150W HQI's are great. cant wait to see some pics

 

[sammy33]

chrisjet;126516 wrote: wow, looks good , are you a little concerned about your soon to come electric bill ?

Yes. Will have to intercept the mail before the wife sees the power bill. :lol2:

Really I think it will only add about .60 a day unless my math was wrong?

 

[sammy33]

Budsreef;126614 wrote: Very cool! So will this bring the water to a complete boil or just a simmer.

Not sure how the temps will work out. Right now my three heaters have to work to keep the tank at about 78F with the T5 lights running. I am guessing it will probably go up a degree or two. I can live with 80F but any higher and I will probably need chiller.

I have decent ventilation and am adding a four more canopy fans for a total of 6. I am hoping this keeps temps in check. :unsure:

 

[sammy33]

Here is my last full tank shot before the light upgrade. This is with the T5 only system:

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Not bad but I am hoping to get more growth and slightly better coloration out of this new setup I am building. I am going to try and finish up tonight so I can get some PAR readings this weekend. I am sure it will take a good 6 weeks before I will see any differences in growth.

Here is the original PAR reading about a month after installing my T5's:

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I am hoping to see an increase to about 600+ PAR at about 4" down at the reef top. I would also like to see some higher numbers around 200+ PAR near the bottom. I will post the new numbers as soon as I can.

 

[victor626nj]

sammy i want to stop by your place to see these in action dude looks good i cant believe you put them up already.yesterday when i was at your place you were like a kid in a toy store lol

 

[sammy33]

I finished installing the pendants and wiring tonight. I got the canopy back on and motorized lift working better than before as it is now much better balanced with more even weight distribution.

The first thing I did was fire up the T5's and let the corals come back to life for few hours. No light for day since I had the canopy off so I did not want to blast 'em. The T5's with all actinics (but one row) really made the tank glow. Having the lamps spread out also covered the tank with light much better.

I later fired up the halides and...WOW! brighter than I expected. The Aqualine Bushcke lamps live up to their specs and initial PAR tests are impressive. The top of the tank is just under 1000 PAR and slightly over in the hot spots under the pendants. The color from the halides is bright white with very little yellow. Will see how the color shifts as these lamps burn in.

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The top of the reef is getting about 750 PAR now! This is a bit higher than I was targeting but the PAR will drop a bit after the lamps burn in. I do still have one row of Aquablue+ (11K) T5's which cast a lot of daylight spectrum and high PAR. Swapping this lamp for another actinic may help even things out.

If it stays higher then I may try some 14K Phoenix lamps or maybe even some Radium 20K's? :shades:

So far the temps have not moved. I only ran the halides for about an hour and the temp did not go up from 78.5F. I did have the canopy up about 6" to lower the PAR (acclimating) and the ventilation was excellent.

Overall looks like this will be a good upgrade/increase for my lighting. I will post more pics soon.

 

[victor626nj]

please take par readings tomorrow

 

[jgoal55]

Sam, since you're already working on one...you might as well go ahead and make two of these canopies and give the second one to me....:thumbs:


I think this is exactly the set up I want when I set up a new tank.....keep this thread going as I am really interested to see how you corals react.

Thanks for posting.

 

[kzoo]

I had a feeling you would go back to MH lamps, with 150w your power bill won't be bad. Like to see those new par readings also I would like to know how those ballast work may get one for my tank.

 

[linda lee]

Budsreef;126614 wrote: Very cool! So will this bring the water to a complete boil or just a simmer.

I noticed that part of the upgrade was adding a phone so the fish could call 911.

 

[budsreef]

Very nice Sam! That tank was already awesome, I look forward to seeing it again before you clutter it up with all the SPS you're going to add.

 

[sammy33]

Linda Lee;127214 wrote: I noticed that part of the upgrade was adding a phone so the fish could call 911.

:lol2: We have had several unexplained veggie pizza deliveries. Must be the Tang?

 

[sammy33]

Jgoal55;127210 wrote: Sam, since you're already working on one...you might as well go ahead and make two of these canopies and give the second one to me....:thumbs:


I think this is exactly the set up I want when I set up a new tank.....keep this thread going as I am really interested to see how you corals react.

Thanks for posting.

This was the best thing I could come up with for an 18" wide tank (front to back). Those pendants are only 6" wide so they take up very little space. I am probably still going to take the T5's out and remount them on a spacer so they are at the same height as the HQI's but other than that I am extremely happy with the results.

 

[sammy33]

kzoo;127211 wrote: I had a feeling you would go back to MH lamps, with 150w your power bill won't be bad. Like to see those new par readings also I would like to know how those ballast work may get one for my tank.

The Galaxy ballasts seem to be gaining a great reputation. I got the lamp cord that has the quick connect so I did not have to chop any wires and it is easy to uplug the ballasts if needed.

I think I ended up with the same pendant/reflector you have? Mine have a large 3/16" gap/opening where the glass is too low. This looks to me like it may let some UV light through so I applied some performance enhancing reflective sheet (aluminum foil stolen from kitchen) to block the opening. :shades: Do your reflectors have that gap?

 

[kzoo]

sammy33;127321 wrote: The Galaxy ballasts seem to be gaining a great reputation. I got the lamp cord that has the quick connect so I did not have to chop any wires and it is easy to uplug the ballasts if needed.

I think I ended up with the same pendant/reflector you have? Mine have a large 3/16" gap/opening where the glass is too low. This looks to me like it may let some UV light through so I applied some performance enhancing reflective sheet (aluminum foil stolen from kitchen) to block the opening. :shades: Do your reflectors have that gap?

Ya, I have the same also there are some vents on the sides that I closed , as for the gaps on the side I the special uv inhibitor (black tape) I know that some people let uv in ther tanks but I have seen the damage it can do coral not to mention your eyes.