Help with lighting plan

[shoreliner11]

I am getting a 65 gallon reef ready tank shortly. Although it will be several months until all will be set up, I was wondering if you could help me with lighting plans. I wanted to get dual 250watt mh and 2x110 watt VHO (thats a little over 11 watts per gallon...should I go 175's instead?). With that said, is it cheaper to buy a already made hood or to buy the ballasts and what not seperately? I am building the hood and stand myself but I am not too experienced in wiring but I could learn if it was the cheaper route. Any suggestions on brands and spectrum of mh bulbs? If you have any links where I could find good prices on ballasts and whatnot...please email me (shoreliner11@yahoo.com). Thanks for your help.

 

[birdy]

I would go with the two 250mh and no VHO, just get 20k bulbs then you don't really need the actinic sup. Those bulbs are blue enough, You may have a heat issue, I have one 250w MH over my 58gal (same dimensions except the 65 is deeper), You will need several fans in the canopy (I have 4). I suggest building your own canopy.

 

[shoreliner11]

Thanks for the reply. I have heard of people using 20k xm bulbs..is this right? Just wondering if anyone could let me know what brands of bulbs and ballast I should use? Oh, if I only use 2x250watt 20k mh, what should I use to make a sort of dawn dusk effect? Right now I just turn on my actinic first as most people do. Thanks again.

 

[birdy]

I have not used the 20k xm's but I hear good things about them. I personally use an electronic ballast (ice cap) and I really like it, and the fact that I could go to HQI if I wanted to eventually. It also is suppose to reduce electrical costs. As far as the dawn to dusk effect, from everything that I have read it is just for your pleasure and doesn't effect the tank at all. I don't have a dawn to dusk effect on this tank and don't notice anything different coral wise from the tank that I did have it on. If you only have MH then you cannot really have the dawn to dusk, when MH come on they have to warm up so they come on dim and get brighter, so they are not automatically on.

 

[jhueb12]

I agree with the icecap ballasts. I have two running 250watt 10K XM's. The 10K's are bright white IMO and I only supplement with 110 watts of PC actinic and am very pleased. They are just on seperate timers for dawn/dusk. I did the DIY canopy and ordered parts seperatly and it has worked fine.

 

[streetdoc]

Buy the parts and DYI as long as you are doing the hood and stand yourself. I bought the hood assembled and I am now wondering if I should tear it apart and mount the hardware separate in the new hood for hte 210 I bought Saturay, Sure would have been cheaper to buy the ballasts and bulb holders and mount them myself

 

[shoreliner11]

Ok, so lets see if I'm forgetting anything. I would need:
2 ballasts: HQI is $135 and Icecap is $120
Spider Reflector with mogul socket and mounting bracket 2x$30
3 or 4 4inch fans (should I just get cheap ones...like at radio shack or what?)
2 HQI 20,000k bulbs at $80 a piece or 2 XM 20000k bulbs at $65
...anything else? I saw something about an extra power cord that makes wiring look neater...not sure if its necesary though.
The hqi route is going to be around $500 with the icecap and xm route would be $430...what do you think? Thats not including fans...so probably another 40 or 50 more...not sure on the cost of em. Thanks.

 

[shoreliner11]

After all this I'm not sure if I want the 20k xm bulbs. Most of the pictures I've seen are really blue and don't quite look natural to me. Could anyone post some tank picts of the 20k xm bulbs...also, state whether the picture does justice to the actual color. Thanks.

 

[streetdoc]

I use 2, 4" 120 VAC fans from Radio Shack @ $ 22.99ea wired into my PC circuit so the fans are running when my PC's are. The PC's are the first on and the last off so it works well and eliminates a seperate timer.:yes:

 

[shoreliner11]

So the better choice would be to run 2 250 watt double ended bulbs. A little more spendy but probably worth it. Now, I was looking for a reflector like a the mogul based so I could put it in a custom hood but was unable to find one, I did find this one though. Is this what you are talking about? Also, if I ran 2 20k double ended bulbs would I need actinics to supplement? Also, will any hqi ballast work...I've seen some around 200 and as low as 130 or so...any major differences I should look for. Thanks all for giving me mh 101 :yes:

 

[shoreliner11]

Ok, 1 more post...lol. Is this a good deal for a PFO 250W HQI Mini Pendant System - includes 250W 20000K double-ended HQI bulb and PFO 250W HQI ballast for $315?