Any option other than MH out there?

lennon

lennon

Member

Hi all. I plan to do a reef tank shortly. I am going to start with FOWLR first for a few months until all is better established. Then I will add the other items.
I know that MH are the best. I have heard this alot. BUT due to heating issues, having a canopy, and not wanting to use these type of lights anyway..I wanted to know what others use. Is there any alternative to these without having all that heat. I am having this tank placed in a livingroom and do not want to see lights hanging and all the wires on top. That is why I am using the canopy and sump/refugium for most items to go into.
Please help!! :help:
P.s. I will have a 45 tank..possibly 58 gallon. NOt sure which one I am doing yet..but cannot have lights that vent on the sides due to the canopy. Thanks much!!!!
 
jmick

jmick

Active Member
My 55 gal does just fine with my 440 watt VHO system. The back side of my hood is open and heat build up is minimal.
 
larrynews

larrynews

Active Member
i have 2 400w mh in my canopy over my 90 and with 2 5 inch fans blowing its not much a problem, along with 2x96w and 2x65w pc
 
hagfish

hagfish

Active Member
I really wouldn't worry quite so much about the heat. Like some have said, that can be solved with a couple of fans. As for the light, you need to figure out what kind of corals you want and then buy the appropriate lighting for those corals. If you only want soft corals and some LPS, pc or vho will be fine. If you want to keep some SPS, clams, and anemone's you would probably be better off with MH. I believe some people have kept high light demanding corals under t5 lights as well.
 
lennon

lennon

Member
Originally Posted by hagfish
I really wouldn't worry quite so much about the heat. Like some have said, that can be solved with a couple of fans. As for the light, you need to figure out what kind of corals you want and then buy the appropriate lighting for those corals. If you only want soft corals and some LPS, pc or vho will be fine. If you want to keep some SPS, clams, and anemone's you would probably be better off with MH. I believe some people have kept high light demanding corals under t5 lights as well.
I am getting an oceanic canopy. I don't think it is that big in there...how do you all keep the fans and such?? how does it fit??
I noticed in one of my brochures..there are MH spotlights...it almost looks like a floodlight.
Any opinion on those??
thanks everyone
 
hagfish

hagfish

Active Member
I just made my own canopies. I'm not even good with wood and still managed to make a couple decent looking canopies. I haven't even needed a fan actually. With the house set around 70 degrees the water stays fairly cool until the lights come on. I've just put a heater in the tank on an opposite schedule from the lights and it's at 80 degrees every time I look at it.
I know some canopies don't have a lot of vertical space which is bad for mh's because you don't want water to be able to splash on them. If you've already bought the canopy and you find that you can't get a mh lamp in there without at least 8" of space from the water then you will either have to use a different light source or get a different canopy. You might want to look into t5's. I've seen pics of really nice looking tanks running t5's.
The MH spotlights are usually called pendants. There is nothing wrong with them. Any MH will do as long as it has a color spectrum that is useful to the animals you are growing. I see those pendants in fish stores all the time.
 
lennon

lennon

Member
Thanks Hag. I figure maybe I will try the pendant..I am hoping I do not need MH..I dont know what to do. Maybe I will just avoid corals

I just don't want to deal with heat issues..not in the water..just outside. I get too nervous.
 
ebsochin

ebsochin

Member
I just don't want to deal with heat issues..not in the water..just outside. I get too nervous
Lennon- Not all MH give off a huge amount of heat. The bulbs themselves get hot but in a canopy it is not bad. As far as the ballasts (the power source that produce a lot of excess heat) you could get ice cap ballasts which are electronic ballasts and they produce very, very, very little heat. I have 2 250W ballasts for my MH's and they are attached to the sides of my stand on the inside where the sump is and I don't see any heat issues at all.
 
crazyzeus1

crazyzeus1

Member
OK...I'm REALLY new to this whole thing, but I'll tell you what we have (as much as I know) & maybe it will help a tiny, tiny bit :)
We have VHO lighting...I don't know the wattage.
We have been successful with the following corals/leathers/etc for the past month...
Spaghetti Leather
Vairous Mushrooms
Yellow Polyps
Green Star Polyps
Torch Coral (just added that last week at the suggestion of our LFS who also set up the tank...we'll see how it goes....these are supposed to need high lighting, but it's at the top of our rockwork)
Colt Coral
A few Xenia colonies
Everything is thriving with our lighting, suppliments, & water flow. I know VHO lighting limits our coral choices, but we're happy with what we have so far! Good luck!
Here's a link to our pics so you can see how ours are doing with VHO lighting...When you click it, you don't have to "sign in" on that site...you can choose to view the photo album without signing in!
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slidesho...e&conn_speed=1
 
hagfish

hagfish

Active Member
Don't let the lights intimidate you into not doing corals. Do you know what kind of corals you want to keep? If you want to keep corals similar to what crazyzeus1 has then you will be fine using VHO or PC. If you buy an entire light fixture (not a retrofit) it will likely be as simple as plugging it in and you'll be all set. Even if you get a complete retrofit it's just a matter of putting the lights into the canopy. If you are patient enough, you will come across good deals for any of these lights.
 
lennon

lennon

Member
Originally Posted by hagfish
Don't let the lights intimidate you into not doing corals. Do you know what kind of corals you want to keep? If you want to keep corals similar to what crazyzeus1 has then you will be fine using VHO or PC. If you buy an entire light fixture (not a retrofit) it will likely be as simple as plugging it in and you'll be all set. Even if you get a complete retrofit it's just a matter of putting the lights into the canopy. If you are patient enough, you will come across good deals for any of these lights.

I just get nervous about fires..I guess being a mom..that makes it tough to think of.
I have not investigated corals yet since I figure I would start with FOWLR to get aquainted with the hobby. I am patient since I want to be successful.
But I do know that I like the things that tend to flow back and forth in the water. As well as colorful items. Iwould love to do an anemone..but have heard they are very tough.
When you say an "entire light fixture" what exactly do you mean? I thought anything I got would be hung in the canopy and plugged in..Sorry, I am alittle confused.
Can you suggest something that I can use now for FOWLR tank and then just add the lights I need to it for the corals at a later time?
Money is not an issue..so I will probably get the ballast that do not get too hot.
Any you recommend?
thanks so much for the help. I truly appreciate it
 
lennon

lennon

Member
crazyzeus1 said:
OK...I'm REALLY new to this whole thing, but I'll tell you what we have (as much as I know) & maybe it will help a tiny, tiny bit :)
We have VHO lighting...I don't know the wattage.
QUOTE]
I would love to know exactly what you use...that way I can check it out and read up on it.
It doesn't get too hot?
I was unable to open your picture.. I wanted to see them so badly :eek:(
Click to expand...
 
crazyzeus1

crazyzeus1

Member
You can e-mail me at crazyzeus1 at aol dot com and I will gladly attach some photos for you.
We had some heat issues, but we added a chiller. Before the chiller, the max temp. our tank reached was about 86. We keep a fan blowing over our sump (a small, clip-on type fan). And we keep the top of the aquarium open (the top of our aquarium is hidden by a stained, wood panel, but the VERY top cover are two boards that slide back & forth...we leave one of those cracked about 6 inches...I assume that's OK!).
Maybe if my pics help you, then I can find out the specifics from our LFS who set the whole thing up as far as what wattage, etc we have.
Like I said, I'm WAY new to all of this, but we do have some really pretty things that sway in the current (spaghetti leather, colt coral, Torch coral) and some other neat things that move & change frequently (xenias, zoos).
Hope that helps a bit!
 
lennon

lennon

Member
Originally Posted by crazyzeus1
You can e-mail me at crazyzeus1 at aol dot com and I will gladly attach some photos for you.
We had some heat issues, but we added a chiller. Before the chiller, the max temp. our tank reached was about 86.
Hope that helps a bit!

Thanks for the advise..I kind of wanted to avoid getting a chiller if I could. Were the heat issues due to the lights??
 
crazyzeus1

crazyzeus1

Member
I assume the heat issues were with the lights. BUT... we didn't have a fan in the sump cabinet at that time, so maybe just the fan would have brought the temp. down enough. Not sure...we did both at the same time.
Was the space an issue for the chiller?
 
computrgk

computrgk

Member
Hey javatech!!
Are those lights any good for an aquarium I have a hard time believing these would do the trick anyone use them? or know of anyone who has how would you even figure the WPG on these i can sell a flashlight and tell you it's the same as 500 watts doesn't make it true it only uses 65w hmm well i'll wait till someone buys them and then find out if they work
 
hagfish

hagfish

Active Member
For that flood light, I don't know if you're going to be able to find a bulb with a high enough kelvin rating for aquariums. It looks like it comes with a 6500 kelvin bulb which is usable, but that is probably too low to look good in most people's opinion (it will look very yellow). There are some LFS's near me that have some really yellow metal halides over some coral tanks and it just looks terrible IMO.
 
computrgk

computrgk

Member
I didn't figure it was usable it's way to cheap to work well
guess i'll just buy some VHO lights for around 300 and be done with it
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top