What would you suggest?

[Pamela]

I'm starting a 150 aga which is 30" deep. I already have a hood with 4 vho actinic uri bulbs and an icecap 660. I want to add mh's to this hood down the center. I've already added extra fans to those already in the hood. I would like to be able to support a clam but am unsure about the mh's. Was thinking 250s, 6500 or 10000 and what about the ballast? I saw a thread on ordering ballasts for 26$ that could run the 250 with no problems. I've seen a lot of concerns about 400s being so hot and energy expensive. Just want to know, which would you choose? Thanks much, Pamela

[Undr*H20]

Hi,
The tank is 6' right and 27" deep. For that depth you would probably need to go with 400 watt. If you can only get 3 under there I would probably just go with (3) 400 watt radiums. For the ballast it really depends on how blue you like it. If you use HQI ballast you will get a slightly whiter light than with standard ballast ( elecrtonic ).

I would head over to reef central and do a search to get a visual of what I am saying, there are a lot threads that show the color differences in these lamps when driven by different ballast.

Forgot to mention - the radiums are 20K

[Pamela]

Hello and thanks for replying. Tank is 4' long,24" wide. I don't think I have room for 3 mhs on top of the vhos unless I'm not understanding what you mean. 3 seems like an awful lot and at 400 watts each wouldn't that really heat the tank up?

[Undr*H20]

I thought it was 6' long. If it's only 4' long then 2 would be fine.

The depth of the tank is what really determines what type of halide you will need, 30" deep would mean you would want to go with 400 watt halides.

[Pamela]

Ok I can handle the 400s but help me out on those ballasts. I lean much more to the artsey side than to the mechanical side and am having a time trying to understand the differences. I kinda understand that some will only operate certain bulbs and some will cause premature burn out as well as safety issues. What I'm getting at is I need it spelled out for me! Again thanks for your time.

[Pamela]

While I gotcha what do think about tucking a blue moon bulb in the middle ot the hood? Would just a regular bulb do it?

[Undr*H20]

Pamela,

Those radiums will look very nice!

Since you already have actinics I would opt to go with a dual 400 watt HQI ballast. It will drive the lamps a bit whiter, but it will still be blue...espcially until they burn in. As for the ballast, I would either get PFO HQI or I think icecap makes a HQI system... although I am not sure. To be honest, go over to reefcentral and do a search to make sure the color will be to your liking. The HQI do drive the bulbs a bit whiter, just make sure you like it before you buy them. You might also call icecap, Andy is a really nice guy and will help more than I could.

As for the lamps, for sure get 400 watt radiums... best out there period!

As for the moonlight, the party lights look nice and it probably your best bet unless you want to wire up some LED lights. You can buy the LED lights, but it might be a bit cost prohibitive as you would need a lot of them to light the tank. I have LED lights on my 29 gallon.

Here is a pic of them. They are a bit brighter in person. The cool thing is that they are point source like MH so they shimmer, and the color spec is close to actinics so they make the corals glow.

http://joshtalley.smugmug.com/photos/5214/5214-Medium.jpg


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[Pamela]

I love that blue! I think I'll try the led lights, btw what does pho,hqi and led stand for? I have such an awful time getting on at rc let alone moving thru the threads that I don't stop in much any more unless I get up extra early!

[Undr*H20]

PFO - is the company that makes the particular ballast

HQi - mercury quartz.....not sure about the I. In america they generally refer to double ended bulbs, but the 400 HQI can drive a mogul lamp. Simply, they push more wattage through the bulb and it burns whiter... in very simple terms.

Like I said call icecap and talk with them, very friendly folks. Also, at RC there is a thread many pages long talking about led lights...it's in the reef section.

Do a google search for hi-lites... it is a type of pre made led lights which is what I have. You can run 5 led light off of one transistor that they include. Some wal marts sell them.

[Pamela]

Will do, thanks again, Pamela

[bearbait]

LOL .. I just yesterday went and got a 100 blue xmas light and took a round reflector from a celling fan and bunched them into a ball in there and super glued a peice a plexi glass on to see how it looked and it looked cool! looked just like moon light so im going to work with it and make it a bit more usable.. I here the blue rope lights work well also

[Pamela]

Sounds like it would work to me. Ive seen those rope lights every where and cheap enough that I could play around with that. Good idea Bear, thanks Pamela

[Pamela]

I just thought of a possible problem with using any kind of lights on a string. My hood will have 4 48" vhos 2 on each side and 2 400 watt mhs in the center on each end. I'm wondering how close to these can I get with the blues before they are damaged or worse?

[bearbait]

Im going to make mine useing a pie pan or something of the sort with the bottom cut out and attach a peice of glass to the bottom so that when attached to the top of the canopee all the othe lights are hanging a bit lower the moon lights I would defently keep them out of haet rech of the MH bulbs just find a spot were they are kinda out of the way so that daytime the fans will keep them cool and at night theres no worries as they will be the only light on.