newbie with a expensive light

new2salt3

new2salt3

Member
Ok, we're new to salt... however, we got tired of nothing staying a live so we broke down and bought a Current Outer Orbit HQI-T5 HO for $1,000.00
Can anyone tell us if this is a good light or not? I know everyone is probably thinking, you idiots for not researching ahead of time... but we all live and learn! lol
However, it has a lot of yellow in the lighting and we really don't care for that. We're used to big and bright.. do we need to change some bulbs out or what? It has 2 different kinds of moonlights which we love. We have 2 different kinds of actnic blues, 2 metal halides in the middle which are 150 watt. The tank is a 115 g.. any suggestions or comments anyone would care to help us out with
???
 
salt life

salt life

Active Member
Originally Posted by new2salt3
http:///forum/post/2987719
Ok, we're new to salt... however, we got tired of nothing staying a live so we broke down and bought a Current Outer Orbit HQI-T5 HO for $1,000.00
Can anyone tell us if this is a good light or not? I know everyone is probably thinking, you idiots for not researching ahead of time... but we all live and learn! lol
However, it has a lot of yellow in the lighting and we really don't care for that. We're used to big and bright.. do we need to change some bulbs out or what? It has 2 different kinds of moonlights which we love. We have 2 different kinds of actnic blues, 2 metal halides in the middle which are 150 watt. The tank is a 115 g.. any suggestions or comments anyone would care to help us out with
???
danggg, for 1K, you coulda bought a bigger tank!
idk anything about the light though, good luck
 
nycbob

nycbob

Active Member
its a decent fixture. the bulbs dont to be changed until another 6-9 months. ur corals or fish not staying alive in the past could be due to more than just lights, it could hv been water parameters.
 
moprint

moprint

Member
Change the halides to 20000k bulb and it will be blue. With the T5s on maybe a 15000k bulb. Yeah just get a 15000k bulb for the halides. For $1000 you could have got an ATI Powermodule alot better light then the Outer Orbit.
 
new2salt3

new2salt3

Member
Are the 150w halide bulbs poor quality? Im mean Im ready to take this thing back for something else. The T5 we had gave a better over all bright blue hue that was great. This new light is a huge dissappointment to us!
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by new2salt3
http:///forum/post/2987822
Ok, then why does the metal halide bulbs throw yellow???
10K bulbs look more yellow. The 14K and 20K are more blue. My system came with 10K, very yellow. I broke one already
So I just ordered 2 new 14K because I want the blue. I will keep the one 10K for backup.
Also the instructions wth my bulbs say that the true color of the bulbs won't be set until the bulb is used for 1000 hours. They are good for 12 to 14months.
Hope this helps
 
new2salt3

new2salt3

Member
So ur suggestion is to switch out the halide bulbs only to 20k bulbs and leave the actinic blue bulbs as they are? If we change them out, what do u think they will run in price?
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
The new bulbs cost me $68.00 each. That is why the screaming flame when I broke one. I don't curse, but I cursed when I broke it. I thought this hobby was supposed to relax me. LOL
My friend runs 20K and doesn't use the actinics at all. I plan on using the 14K and my actinics, I love my moonlights. I put everything on a command center.
I run the actinics 2 hours before the MH comes on. I run the MH 8 hours, they go off and the actinics run another 2 hours, when they shut off the moonlights kick on for the night. So I have 12 hours on, and 12 hours off.
However I started with just 2 hours of MH lighting increasing each day by 1 hour until everything got used to the lights. I left only the actinics run the 12 hours as usual. I had no algae bloom and so far so good. I didn't use the command center until I was ready for my more permanent light schedule.
MH lighting looks nice but be careful they are fragile, don't touch the bulb with your hands, use a paper towel, don't turn them on and off too fast, after they go off, turning them on again can make them pop if they are hot, and if they are running, even a tiny drop of top off water makes them pop (that is how I broke one)
The rest of how to handle them I was told about.
Happy reefing!
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
The 10K bulbs will whiten up slightly as they break in. Probably not enough to make you happy with the color but It should look fairly white with the Actinics on.
 
new2salt3

new2salt3

Member
Just spoke with the lfs and she said also the bulbs will whiten up within a week and I will need the 10K bulbs if we want clams and certain corals to thrive. She said be patient which we are not...lol...we just want things to look a certain way since we just dropped a grand.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Now that is something I haven't heard before. I was told that you can have anything you want with MH lighting, no matter if i is 10K or 20K, 10K makes things grow faster but the 14K and 20K were just a matter of how it looks.
My friend has 20K and has clams, as a matter of fact I had clams with my Power Compacts on a 55g.
Comments please, is the LFS full of it?
 
jackri

jackri

Active Member
I bought the same type of fixture and got the 250 w and 54 t-5's for 716watts total over my 90g.
It somes with actnic t-5's and 10K halides... which even after break up is pretty yellow but will give you really good growth.
After 10 months I just replaced the halides with 14k phoenix bulbs and throws ALOT different color a really nice blue. It's all preference, you'll probably get better growth with the 10k's and once you have descent growth you could go 14k (I wouldn't do 20k's with actnic t-5's) and have still descent growth and a bluer color.
Love my light set up and clams will still do fine under the different type bulbs.. doesn't need to be 10k per say.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Originally Posted by Flower
http:///forum/post/2987933
Now that is something I haven't heard before. I was told that you can have anything you want with MH lighting, no matter if i is 10K or 20K, 10K makes things grow faster but the 14K and 20K were just a matter of how it looks.
My friend has 20K and has clams, as a matter of fact I had clams with my Power Compacts on a 55g.
Comments please, is the LFS full of it?
IMO it's not the color of the bulb that determines what's appropriate, it's the PAR - the amount of useable light. In general, the more yellow the color the higher the PAR. There are many, many exceptions though so it's not a rule.
Keep in mind that the color of the Sun is only 6000K at maximim. This is more yellow than the ugliest aquarium light.
 
reefraff

reefraff

Active Member
WHat Bang said.
Unfortunatly 20K halides have lousy PAR compared to the 10K's and 150 watt halides don't provide a whole lot of PAR to begin with. Stick with the 10K lamps.
You can REALLY help yourself out by dumping the crappy T5's that come with the fixture (Assuming you have the current brand lamps).
Grab ATI Blue Plus (Not Aquablue which are more white than blue) and replace the Current actinic 420's (the violet looking lamps) and you will get a sweet boost in PAR and more blue light. With all the lights on you won't notice much difference using the blue lamps instead of the real actinics (420 nm light)
Giesemann Actinic Plus or Aquascience 22000K Blue are also good choices. The current 460 actinic (Blue looking lamps) are nice as far as color but have crappy PAR output. Still its hard to justify tossing brand new lamps so I would go with them for 6 months or so and just get rid of the 420's.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Here's an example of what I mean by "generally". Shop around for the right bulb for your ballast, the differences can be astounding.
150Watt DE bulbs & PAR:
Giesemann 10000K = 60
Radium 20000K = 58
VDE 15000K = 30
Sylvania 10000K = 96
 
05xrunner

05xrunner

Active Member
Phoenix 14k bulbs..IMO are the best combo of PAR and color...they have great par and a nice blueish tint to the water.
You do not need 10k bulbs to keep a clam.
 
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