light systems

[Anonymous]

I'm new to this site so I would like to get a feel for what everyone is using for lighting. I have a 120gal with a 75gal for a sump in my ceilar. My tank consists mainly of sps corals and other rare things that can withstand alot of light. I use 2 400w 6500k iwasaki's, and 4 110w vho's. Three vho's are uri aquasun's and one superactinic from uri.

wildbill

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Bill,

I have a twenty gallon SPS and hard coral dominated tank. It is lit with a 400w 6500k Iwasaki supplemented with tw0 55w VHO actinics. My prefernce is for MH over other types of lighting.

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Dan
Minotaur15 on #reefs
Reef Obsessed Surfer

 

[Anonymous]

I have 2 reef tanks: 1 90 gallon that has 4 X 55 watt PC (2 5500 K and 2 supposedly 10000 K) that is 13 & 1/2 months old; the other is a 30 gallon that has 2 10000 K 175 watt MH, no actinics or supplements (I'm thinking about maybe adding either NO or PC actinics; VHO aren't available locally). The 30 gallon is just 5 months old and rather sparsely populated. HTH

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My drug habit cost less, but reef colors are better!

 

[Anonymous]

I have 2 tanks ,the 65g has 4 vho with ice cap ballost,the 100g has 4 96 watt power compacts and 2 - 250 watt metal halides.

 

[Anonymous]

I have two ninety gal tanks, two thirties, a thirty-five, a fifty five, plus hospital, quarantine, and sumps for most tanks. My main set-ups are barebottom Berlin although I have a plenum tank and a pre-filtered reverse flow undergravel as well. ALL tanks are lit with NO florescent tubes, mostly GE Daylight Ultra, the remainder, 03 actinics by Philips.

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ICQ#30079114
http://www.angelfire.com/ab/rayjay/index.html

 

[Anonymous]

Wild Bill,I have a 220 reef and I use the same MH's with 160 Watt 03 VH0's.I would use 4x110Watt 03's instead of the 50/50's.It would yield a more pleasing bluer color.A 120 gal is a good size for a reef tank and the lighting is ideal. Anthony

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Bill,
I'm using a 175w 10k german halide w 2 URI no's ( 1 50/50 and 1 super.)on a 29gal, and will use the same lights on my 65.

 

[Anonymous]

HOLY CRAP!!! Thats alot of light minotaur! Are you sure that is correct? 510w of MH and PC light is ALOT for a 20g! Thats over 25 watts per gallon!

 

[Anonymous]

I made a mistake when I said I use 3 daylights and 1 blue, I use 2 of each. I have thought about adding another blue in exchange of 1 daylight.

 

[Anonymous]

From what I understand the Aquasun are mostly for fish only tanks and that bulb is used more to enhance color. If that is true your corals would benefit more from 50/50 than the Aquasuns' but since you have the MH maybe you are just using the Florecent more to enhance color. On my 75 I use 2 110W 50/50 and 2 110W 03's

 

[Anonymous]

Clark I've read that also about the aquasun; but my sps's seem to grow better using the aquasun. I've been playing with the combination of vho's for 4 years now. I still don't know what I really like best. My next trial will be 3 03's and 1 dayight. I change my vho's every 4 months.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Ryan,

Yup 510 watts is correct. Is there a problem ?

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Dan
Minotaur15 on #reefs
Reef Obsessed Surfer

 

[Anonymous]

Bill, now that I think about it I used the VHO AquaSun for a while on my tank!! Do you notice any type of serious red hair algae associated with these bulbs? It seems like when I went to the 50/50 this problem cured itself!

Clark

 

[Anonymous]

Bill,
On the other hand I am thinking seriously about adding a couple of MH's And when and if I do, using VHO for 03 is what I will do initially also. Is a chiller a must with the MH bulb or can you skulk around it like I did with the VHO. I guess my question is how much heat do MH'S add to the tank? and can that heat be suficiently removed with fans in the hood? Say for example in your case with the 2 175 Watt.

 

[Anonymous]

Mick,

I had a yellow and a blue both in the tank neither would touch it. This was some weird algae. In ten years of having this tanks set up primarily fish only I had never seen anything like it. I was in the process of changing to the current reef setup when this stuff showed up. Im' still not sure what caused it. But changing the bulbs and some serious water changes cured it. more than likely the water changes fixed it. But it could have been a "bulboverused" bizarro color spectrum that got this weird slimy red hairy stuff going and thriving in the first place.

 

[Anonymous]

Clark, I didn't start using the aquasun until my tank was 11/2 yrs old. Back then I was using 2 10k 175w and 4 vho's,2 03's and 2 50/50's. For over the last 3years the only algae I get is thick coralline. The 50/50 is bluer but I like the green in the aqua sun. I do notice that when the 50/50 ages it doesn't shift color like the aquasun. The aquasun does get redder. I'm starting to see that alot of people use there vho's for actinics and let there MH's do the rest. Its going to be my next choice when I switch my vho's.

 

[Anonymous]

I have a 75 lit by 4 110's fired by a icecap 660, and 2 40ws fired by a electronic ballast. The vhos are 2 aquasun and 2 acintic, the 2 40's are acintic. My undertank refugium(mostly macro tank) is lit by 4 20watters with 2 acintics and 1 redish plant bulb and 1 daylight.

I like the Auqasuns pretty well though i plan on using just one next time and replacing the other with a 50/50.

Russell

 

[Anonymous]

When you changed those bulbs Clark did you add something else... like a Tang? Red Hair algae is fairly uncommon IME, usually because it's devoured by Tangs.

FWIW, my personal 50 gallon reef is lit by a 250W Iwasaki, and 2x96 Watt PC's 1 blue 1 daylight. Too many different setups at the shop to repeat here, but my favorite combo is 6500K or 10K german mixed with PC blue.

Tom


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[Anonymous]

Clark, Red slim algae(cyanobacteria) is normally caused by high levels of dissolved organics. The use of activated carbon and tons of protein skimmer will rid this. I'v never seen a tang eat it, actually I don't recall ever seeing any herbivore eat it. A fine tip siphon tube will suck it off any thing, I personally use carbon all the time. As for a chiller; I've needed one for 5 yrs now, the surface temp of a 400w mh is about 800 degree's!!!!!!!!!!!! They do give of alot of heat.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice! What a hobby! You never get it exactly perfect and if it doesn't work quite right...throw more money at it!!! Ya gotta love it though!!!!!!

Thanks again~!

Clark