Lighting 180G (72x24x24)

[Marmot74]

Hey Guys,

I am totally new to reef lighting and want to get the correct light first time around.

I have a 180g, 72x24x24 tank.

I would like an all in one light with MH, T5 and Moonlights.

Is 3x250w a good choice? Should I get Magnetic or Electronic ballasts for the MH?

Been looking at the Belize Sun, Maristar and Aqua Medic combos but am totally going around in circles! Help :)

[Pazil]

What do you plan on keeping in the tank? That will determine what type of light you should be looking for.

[Marmot74]

It will be a full reef with SPS etc etc

So I don't wan't to limit myself much.

[burrows14]

Instead of a fixture would you consider a hood or light rack with pendants? 2x lumenbright large or 2 lumenarc pendants would give you plenty of coverage. at 24" deep you could get away with 250w MH. If you want to upgrade to 400w later on I would get either the lumatek or galaxy select a watt ballast's so you can switch from 250w to 400w with he flick of a switch. Then you can add t5's or leds for supplementation.

[Marmot74]

I was looking at the all in one types (MH, T5, Moonlight) like Hamilton Belize Sun. Do they suck?

[burrows14]

Ive heard good things about them from a couple of people. The only thing is that the centre brace will block out the middle MH.

[Marmot74]

The tank has 2 braces. Splitting the tank into 3rds. Wouldn't that be ideal for a 3 light unit?

[burrows14]

My mistake! I swear I read that you had only one centre brace lol Yes then that fixture would be great for your tank lol I almost went with the 60" version but I couldn't find one with mogul bulbs so I am making my own fixture lol Other wise looks like a great light

[Marmot74]

It's possible it did say that at one point until I actually looked at the tank and saw it had 2 braces :biggrin:

[Lance]

3x 250W MH with supplemental T5 will be fine for just about anything you want to grow in a 24" tank.

[Slick Fork]

I'd also agree with 3x250watt MH OR 3x175 would probably be ok to. I ran 175 watts when I had my big tank running. It was 22" high, and if I was picky about where I put things I could keep anything I wanted, high light stuff in the top half with low light stuff closer to the bottom.

Give some thought to building your own "fixture" it's quite easy and can save you a lot of money as well as give you some interesting ways to customise.

Whatever route you go pay extra attention to reflectors as those are critical to whatever light source you choose.

[Marmot74]

Ok, I having been researching more I am starting to look at T5HO fixtures. I am looking at the Aquactinic Constellation 72", 14x39w.

Maybe I should stop researching so maintain my sanity.....

SOOO many options!

What to do!

[Myka]

Uh oh, now you opened the can of worms. The good ole T5 vs MH debate which has been beaten to death. I'm a die hard MH fan having had tanks run solely on MH and solely on T5s. Imo, you can't beat MH especially when growing SPS corals. You will find plenty of people using T5s on SPS tanks, but let's just say I know quite a few people that have changed right back to the good ole MH. There's a reason for that. ;)

My vote goes for 3x250w halides with 2x48w T5s for supplementals. I have a 4' long, 24" deep tank lit by 2x250w DE halides, and it is very bright...many of my SPS will not tolerate being close to the halides. I keep Milles on the sand, and birdnests and deep water Acros off to the sides away from the direct light. I have a few LPS in there, and they are all shaded by the rocks or they will bleach from too much light.

I use electronic ballasts. You will get more output with tar ballasts, but you will also get substantially more heat as well they will draw more than 250w anyway. HQI ballasts will draw even more, sometimes up to 330w off a "250w" ballast! Personally, I have no need to draw more energy, my bill is high enough, and my lights are definitely bright enough.

[Slick Fork]

I went from a pure T5 back to a mixed T5/MH setup. I don't think I was losing any available light for my pieces as I went to a lower wattage halide and I didn't feel the urge to keep Mille's on the sand-bed! My reason for switching was I just plain missed that beautiful shimmer you get from MH bulbs!

[Myka]

Hehe, it's not that I want the Mille's on the sandbed, it's that they can't handle being any higher. It's annoying actually...

[Marmot74]

My biggest issue is obviously I am new at this and I am willing to spend the money on a good fixture but I don't want to buy one that I'll want to get rid of it or it's a piece of crap! :biggrin:

I am doing endless research but sometimes I feel like I am going around in circles :sad:

[burrows14]

also take into consideration how much 14 39w bulbs would cost to replace every 8 months

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Love the look of MH (shimmer:biggrin:) too much to give it up on my main reef. Also, like Burrows stated, I would have a hard time shelling out for new bulbs all the time. I usually get a very good useful lifespan from my 14000k Aquaconnects (almost 2 years on my last set). Still got good growth & the colour never changed although it was not as bright (based on PAR meter, it was time to change but my corals were still doing fine).

Anthony

[Marmot74]

I also see all the talk abut needing a chiller if using MH. Is this not so?

[burrows14]

IMO you dont need a chiller in our climate. I have never ran one and know of very few people who have

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

It also depends on the room its kept in & how warm your house normally gets.

My place is usually nice and cool, at least 5-10 degrees cooler than the upstairs suite. If I open the front & back doors, most days I'll have a nice little breeze blow through.

In the summer, on the hottest days, I turn on my portable AC unit and that keeps my room temp between 24-26C and my tank at this point doesn't go above 27-28C when the halides are on. I may also switch to reverse photoperiod on the hottest days (nights on at night with the windows open and off during the day when its blazing hot outside).

I find the AC is the best for me since I overheat easily and an AC keeps the home cool.

[ALang]

Pardon another noobie trying to understand everyone's short-hand. But what is a DE metal halide light? Sorry, but just trying to understand better.

[ALang]

Also, I have a Coralife Aqualight Pro with 3x 250W 14,000K MH and 4x 64W actinic power compacts with moon lights in LEDs. My question is: why doesn't my tank have that clean blueish look that everyone else's pics seems to have? Mine seems yellowish by comparison. Do I need to change my bulbs, they are only 11 months old (hence me trying to understand "DE"). I just bought a few SPS frags, some LPS, and trying hard not to kill them. My leathers and mushrooms (my first Noobie corals) are doing well, and now I am trying to move up to the amazing tanks that everyone else has (me want one, too!!). Thanks. Loving this site and reading/learning lots, but trying to guesstimate what most of the short-handed writing means. :mrgreen:

[intarsiabox]

DE is Double Ended, it has electrical points on each side of the bulb. I believe your fixture is DE. The other type is mogal which is a screw in MH bulb. If you are still using the original bulb you will probably want to upgrade to a higher quality bulb and then you will get the proper coloring of a 14K bulb.

[ALang]

OK. Thanks. It is pretty obvious now that you mentioned Dbl Ended as DE.
And I do agree that I will need to change them very soon. That's why I am seeking advice. But with all the bewildering arrayed brands of bulbs out there, can someone please suggest a few (readily available, pls) that I can try, in order to get that nice blueish color? Do I need to go higher than 10,000K ?? Right now I have the 10,000K ( thought they were 14,000K) Coralife brand bulb that came with the fixture. Don't ever remember the lights as being that blue, though.

[intarsiabox]

Yeah, 10k bulbs give off a yellowish look to the tank. I don't have MH's myself at the moment have have heard lots of good reviews on the Phoenix 14k bulbs and they are less expensive than most other bulbs. 14k will give a nice whitish blue color but not too blue as a 20k bulb would.

[ALang]

Thanks buddy. I'll try to source out for these bulbs. I cannot wait to see if they help the outlook of my tank's inhabitants.

[intarsiabox]

I know JL Aquatics has them at a pretty good price but I have not looked locally for them. Give Blue World or Marine Aquaria a try. There's also SOSlightbulbs in the states. They're cheap but only ship via UPS or FedEx so brokerage may be an issue and the good price may not be so great in the end.

[Myka]

I have those same Coralife 10,000K bulbs too! They sit my closet collecting dust! :lol: They are my spare bulbs in case one gets blown, they just came with a fixture I bought. They are horrible. I would also suggest Phoenix 14,000K or for a really blue look XM 20,000K. You will get much more PAR out of the the Phoenix though, and you can always use some heavy actinics like UVL Super Actinic to make the corals pop even more. Most actinic bulbs have low PAR, but the UVLs are out of the ordinary because they have a strangely high PUR output in comparison, so they are really great bulbs as well. Of course if you want even more output you can use a "blue" bulb instead of actinic like 18,000-22,000K. Having the DE halides over your 24" deep tank you should have plenty of PAR to not have to worry too much about that, and just pick bulbs that you think look the nicest. Imo, the Phoenix bulbs look great on their own too.

[ALang]

Thanks everyone! In this hobby, when every little bit of equipment/ livestock is so expensive, this is a great forum for us newbies at the hobby to succeed, without throwing money at things that are sub-par or plainly not work. I have struggled for years and have read all the serious books coming out of professionals, but still have no way of testing stuff that they mentioned due to cash restraint. Or to weed out what is it that I really NEED instead of WANT.
My interest in this hobby have re-surfaced, and I am hoping that this time around, I will have results similar to a lot of the ones that I have admired in these "bragging pages". I will have a lot of questions in the future, and I am gratified that so many of you are caring enough to reply to my simple questions.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

If yours is an Aqualight Pro, then you have 4 x 96w PC actinics (not 65w). Just for future reference.

If you go with Phoenix (good, inexpensive) or Aquaconnects (same colour, more expensive) 14,000k, you won't need to use your actinics at the same time anyways. You can have the actinics on for the "dawn & dusk" effect - turning them on before & after the MH are on to help transition the lighting in the tank from dark, to actinic, to bright, back to actinic & dark again.

[ALang]

Great! Then I maybe able to extend my Actinic's life for a bit longer. Anything to save a few more pennies for those "GOTTAHAVEIT" DAYS.

[Myka]

Oh here I am suggesting T5 bulbs for actinics. *slaps forehead* You don't have nearly the amount of choice with the PCs. I agree that the Phoenix look great on their own, so you wouldn't need to run the PCs all day, just the dusk/dawn. Fwiw, your tank should get 12 hours of light a day, with 6-8 of those being high intensity, so you can run your halides for 6-8 hours, and then the PCs before and after to make up the 12 hours, with say a 15 minute overlap to make up for halide warm up. Does that make any sense? Maybe not...ok something like this:

8:00 PCs on
11:00 halides on
11:15 PCs off
16:45 PCs on
17:00 halides off
20:00 PCs off

That way you will save bulb life, and electricity.

[ALang]

Gee thanks for really spelling it out for me. Sometimes it is easy to assume a newbie may know what you are talking about. I will be doing that when I do my light changes.

[Coleus]

I was looking at the all in one types (MH, T5, Moonlight) like Hamilton Belize Sun. Do they suck?

I think GlobalDesign has one and he is loving it. I got a chance to take a look at the light and I got to say it is very nice too. However, he was using 10K bulb at the time so i did not light the color much but the fixture itself is very solid build.

Unfortunately, if you want this fixture you are in a very long waiting list because they seems out of stock all the time.

I have been waited for over 2 months and now still waiting. If i have known this, I would have bought the maristar from Bulkreefsupply when they are 10% off on remember day. It is just Brutal if you are looking for 6 feet fixture.

I don't think you can go wrong with either one. If you look at build thread, Kien is using maristar for his reef tank.

Good luck