IceCap lighting Retro Canopy

cosmo

cosmo

Member
HI all,
I am planning on upgrading my basic striplight that came with 125g tank to something worth mentioning and I have a couple questions. I'm going to make my own canopy and retro the parts myself. As it stands im going to order an IceCap 430 ballast and 2 72" bulbs (URI Actinic Day 160W - VHO and URI Aquasun 160W - VHO) to start out with. Down to road I'm going to add 3 Metal Halides lights (single and dual PFO MH250W ballast and 3 Ushio MH250W 10,000K bulbs).
Now i'm pretty sure this will be ample lighting for my 125g (eventually) reef tank. I'd like to hear other's thoughts on this though. Also what bulbs should I use to compliment the halides, I want to do a dusk dawn effect and dimmers if I can. also when the canopy is on do I remove the glass tops? If I do , do I cover the tops of my overflows (predrilled corners) so none of pets get caught? Last thing, I promise, how far away from the water do I want the MH's to be??
Thanks:rolleyes:
cosmo
125g Predrilled
90#s LR
100#s LS
Berlin Skimmer
Mag 9.5
Surge 6000
Amiracle 200
 
mikegronholz

mikegronholz

Member
Sounds like you have a good plan !!! I would convert both VHOs to actinic for the mh setup. Glass tops seem to be one of the things most say "take them off", but it remains a personal preference thing. Although, I can tell a definite difference when the glass is clean and when it has salt builup on it.
As for the distance, most everything I have seen/read says like 6-12".
 
1

10k

Guest
On the dimming note:
You do understand that Metal Halides are not dimmable, and if you want to dim the VHO's you will have to get the 660 ballast. The Ice Cap 430 is not dimmable, from what I understand.
 
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