Lighting Upgrade - adding metal halides

[kzoo]

Sorry dont know why that happen? just added a smiley.

 

[sammy33]

kzoo;127343 wrote: 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.

I bent the vents down as well as covered the gap on the side. Is the tape holding up? What tape did you use?

Other than this flaw (major flaw imho) with the gaps these refelctors perform fairly well.

 

[sammy33]

OK...so not even 24 hours have passed and I am changing bulbs. :roll:

I plugged in 3 Ushio 150w 20K lamps today...well...you know...just to see what they'd look like. Nice blue cast to everything with awesome colors everywhere. Doesn't wash out the reds and yellows especially since I still have the Aquablue T5 lamp in the bulb mix. The entire tank is glowing and the fluorescing is off the charts!

The PAR on the 20K lamps is much lower with only about 705 PAR at the very top and around 520 at the top of the reef. This is much closer to where I want to be with the PAR numbers but still a wee bit low. I think keeping the 20K lamps in for now will make it much easier to acclimate the corals to the higher intensities as this is only about a 40% increase as opposed to the almost 100% increase I got from the 10K's I tried last night.

I added the other four fans to the canopy today and the temps are climbing but only 0.3F to 78.6F. The halides have been running for almost two hours now so seems like this fan cooling will at least work for the winter. :unsure:

 

[dough]

The Galaxy ballasts seem to be gaining a great reputation.

I've talked to a number of reefers that are now running that ballest especially with Radiums.

I just changed my light over to a Helios 20K and really like it so far. It is actually whiter than the Pheonix 14K.

 

[kzoo]

sammy33;127463 wrote: OK...so not even 24 hours have passed and I am changing bulbs. :roll:

I plugged in 3 Ushio 150w 20K lamps today...well...you know...just to see what they'd look like. Nice blue cast to everything with awesome colors everywhere. Doesn't wash out the reds and yellows especially since I still have the Aquablue T5 lamp in the bulb mix. The entire tank is glowing and the fluorescing is off the charts!

The PAR on the 20K lamps is much lower with only about 705 PAR at the very top and around 520 at the top of the reef. This is much closer to where I want to be with the PAR numbers but still a wee bit low. I think keeping the 20K lamps in for now will make it much easier to acclimate the corals to the higher intensities as this is only about a 40% increase as opposed to the almost 100% increase I got from the 10K's I tried last night.

I added the other four fans to the canopy today and the temps are climbing but only 0.3F to 78.6F. The halides have been running for almost two hours now so seems like this fan cooling will at least work for the winter. :unsure:

If you get a pic love to see the change. I am useing black electrical tape and it stays on good but wish there was a better fix.

 

[kzoo]

Man just looked at what I wrote in my last post, guess I drank to much beer last night.

 

[sammy33]

New lights:

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Very subtle difference with the colors from the last shot I posted. I did have to go up on the exposure to get close to matching the last shot. The tank is more blue than before with more intensity in the colors. Blues and greens look so much better with more "glow". The Rose BTA has even been coming out (left top) more when the halides are running.

Old lights:

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[victor626nj]

i want to see par readings

 

[kzoo]

Wow the colors look much better.