Lights

[bruce 1]

I have 8 lights on 2 different ballasts. 4 are blue looking when on and 4 are white, should all of them be on at the same time? Or should they be on a timer and come on at different times? Thank you

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[smallblock]

Time them so you can recreat a dawn and dusk effect in order to not shock the fish

 

[smallblock]

Turn the blue on first and last to go off, Have you ever noticed if you turn your lights on the fish are stunned and cant see very good? They also will bump into rocks and stuff pretty funny stuff

 

[bruce 1]

Should the blue and the white stay on all day (both)? Or Should the blue come on at say 6am then the white come on at 10 am and the blue go off at 1015am then the blue come back on at 7 pm and the white go off at 730 pm and the blue go off at 9pm?

What is moon lighting? Would it be different lights? And what times for them?

 

[weaglereefer]

Blue should come on first, then white, then they should both stay on for the time you want, then whites off first, then blues off.


Moonlighting is usually in the form of LEDs and is for observing your tank at night, lots of cool stuff goes on at night time in a reef tank.


Are you running a reef with the above lights? You might consider switching to T5s if the ballasts will allow it, more efficient and brighter.

 

[bruce 1]

I think those are T5 VHO. I will be getting them up and running this week.

Thank you Now into looking for some LEDs Going to look at Ebay.

 

[weaglereefer]

If they're T5's, cool, but they look like VHO (T12). The reason is, it looks like the bulbs are rather thick, and I don't know of T5 bulbs that are that short (comparing diameter to length, the ratio doesn't work out since shortest T5 bulbs are 18", and they're not from URI, they're from Current, and the diameter of a T5 bulb is 5/8").

 

[bruce 1]

they are 24 inches.

They say on them Actinic White VHO and Super Actinic VHO


Thank you.

 

[weaglereefer]

Yup, they are T12 VHO, not T5 HO. T5's are more efficient and the bulbs last longer. What kind of ballast are they running on? It might be as easy as getting new bulbs and switching the endcaps. For example, a 48" T5 HO bulb uses 54w, while a 48" T12 VHO uses 110w, and the T5 will provide more useable light for the corals.

 

[bruce 1]

icecap 660-009

 

[smallblock]

Also you dont want more that an 8 hr total run time per day. After 8 hours all the light does is feed algae

 

[bruce 1]

http://cgi.ebay.com/250-watt-HQI-Metal-Halide-Aquarium-Light-COMPLETE-KIT-/190426211547?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0">http://cgi.ebay.com/250-watt-HQI-Metal-Halide-Aquarium-Light-COMPLETE-KIT-/190426211547?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0</a>


Would this set up added in the middle of my lights be good?

 

[bruce 1]

http://cgi.ebay.com/250-Watt-HQI-Metal-Halide-Retrofit-Kit-Aquarium-Light-/350280945563?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0">http://cgi.ebay.com/250-Watt-HQI-Metal-Halide-Retrofit-Kit-Aquarium-Light-/350280945563?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0</a>

Or would this one be better?

 

[weaglereefer]

dawgdude;546638 wrote: I have an aqua medic HQI halide I could sell you, I just took it off my tank and it has a phoenix 14k with about 4 months of use on the bulb.

This is what it looks like.

http://www.seaquestmarine.com/Aqua_Medic_Ocean_Light_Metal_Halide_Fixture_p/am_ol250w_10k.htm">http://www.seaquestmarine.com/Aqua_Medic_Ocean_Light_Metal_Halide_Fixture_p/am_ol250w_10k.htm</a>[/QUOTE]


That would be my choice between what you've posted. And you can probably sell the Icecap 660s and those endcaps here (some still run VHO's...I do, for now) and recover some of the cost (you'll probably get that fixture from Charlie for less than a new set of T5 bulbs and T5 endcaps would cost)