Should I do this.....Highly Hesitating!

shrimp134

shrimp134

Member
Ok, As you all know, I have a 175w Mh Pendant over my 30" long 29g tank. My question is, do I sell my Mh and get like a PC hood....The reason I am questioning about selling my tank is today..My exact same light ...with a junky bulb in it sold for 152.50+15.00$ shipping on ----.... If I can get that I think I can make some money and still get some really nice lights for my 29g tank...I am only concerning what kind of Lights I should then get...I really dont know much about lights but I really need your help...If I should sell these, what lighting system should I buy...I want to have corals, polyps, anenome's..mushrooms, etc..etc.... Please any suggestions are welcome, And I would greatly Appreciate it...Thanks A bunch!
:help: :help: :help:
 
shrimp134

shrimp134

Member
No, No, No, I didnt sell my Mh..someone else on ---- sold my exact same setup..they had the same as me...but I am wondering if I should sell mine...I really would like to have something over the top of my light, and that would help evaporartion alot.....I know it wont help alot but with my Mh's I have to replace about 2 gallons of water once every 3 days. I would like some other kind of lighting system for my tank, but that would let me get corals of all kind..anenomes...polyps, mushrooms, etc..etc...Thanks Again!
 
doublezero

doublezero

Member
Shrimp,
I personally would keep the MH, on ---- you may or may not get the price you want (too dicey IMO).. for what you want to keep you will need the MH for anenomes, etc.. the rest you could go with VHO or PC...
Could you keep the MH and retro fit the MH ballast into 2 bulb VHO or PC combo at a later time (when you get more $$)and making a hood is not that difficult and can be somewhat inexpensive depending on the wood you use..(if you have access to the tools, etc and or someone who knows how to use them)
I thought on these same lines when I put together my list for my tank.. I decided I would go with a 2 bulb VHO retrofit kit and make my own hood and later purchase the MH ballast retro kit and just make a new hood....
just food for thought , good luck
#00
 
shrimp134

shrimp134

Member
Wooh...You lost me there...All I know is that my Mh is A Pendant...hangs from the ceiling, so I have no idea what you are talking about Lol.....Wouldnt Pc's be enough for my tank though...for everything I want?
 
kc36330

kc36330

Member
i'd stick with the MH.
i had a 4x65 pc over my 29 for 2 yrs and had great success at keeping everything alive (SPS/Clams/Anemeons) but when i changed it out for a 250w MH they started to GROW rather then just creap along.
hth
kc
 
kc36330

kc36330

Member
Originally posted by rabbitfish
also if ur not gonna be into hard to keep corals, i wouldnt worry about gettin pc's....
pc's arent exactly the lighting of choice for hard to keep corals. like VHO's they dont pack the punch to get down into the water like MH's do.
i just read today that mh's waste energy, last 40% bulb time than vho's, and heat up an aquarium like babylon....
on average a MH bulb will last a year to 18 months depending on the spectrum of the bulb. the higher the K the less time before they shift. VHO's shift spectrum after about 6 months, 9 months is pushing it before they need to be replaced.
with an electronic ballast watt for watt they both use the same energy. same goes for heat, 100w of VHO gives the same heat as 100w of MH, the VHO is just spread out over 4' of bulb and the MH is only over an 8"ish area. the concentrated heat of a MH is IMO easier to remove from the canopy as well.
so ur better off considerin vho's if u wanna keep everything...
VHO's can only keep Everything in shallow tanks IME, they loose to much of their power as the tanks get deeper.
kc
 
doublezero

doublezero

Member
Shrimp,
the MH fixture is made up of three parts(could be more but for simplicity) the bulb, the pendant, and the ballast. The bulb and the pendant are self explanatory... the ballast is what drives the bulb ( allows the correct flow of electricity required for your fixture and bulb which you said is 175 W), a transformer if you will.
VHO lighting is more efficient IMO but MH gives you enough penetrating depth and spectrum for anenomes, sps, clams etc at the cost of heat for a pendant setup.. in a hood/canopy situation there is usually fans to remove the heat.
HTH
#00
PS I will e-mail you a site to check out some different types of retrofits that include MH, PC or MH VHO... so you can see them...
 
T

tizzo

Guest
I have the 4x65w pc... My anemone died after about 3 months.
Some people at the LFS say it's O.K. to get hard corals & clams etc... but they also told me that "since my clownfish was tank raised, he has no idea what an anemone is." & "Oh yeah, popeye is to hard to cure... don't worry about your $150 wrasse, he'll just lose his eye, but he'll be ok." (sorry about a little venting there) Anyway keep the MH... I won't even try to keep some of the things I want because of my lighting...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top