To upgrade reef lighting, that is the question

balistik1

balistik1

Member
Ok I need opinions...
I currently have a reef tank with 2 150w double ended MH lights and 4 03 blue bulbs. I am moving into a 125gal tank and I bought another 150w MH to make it three for the new tank. Is this enough lighting for a reef in a 125? I was tossing around the idea to buy 3 sets of 250 MH. What are the advantages of doing so? Will it make enough of a difference tm make the investment worth it?
Please advise....
 
jb rekit

jb rekit

Member
guess it kinda depends on what you want to keep. What you have now would be fine for any softie or LPS. If you put SPS high up on your rock more directly under the light you might even be able to do that too... I think clams would be stretching it though.
I would just keep what you had and make a real nice LPS tank out of it.
just my $.02
 
dburr

dburr

Active Member
150 DE are = to 250 SE so I am told. I would stay with it but thats me. If you go to 250 DE that is = to 400 SE.
Either way, you can keep anything in that tank.
 
balistik1

balistik1

Member
You know I have heard similar but I have also hear otherwise.
The place where I got the bulbs from even say that they are only = to a little more. Not as much as everyone thinks.
Does anyone else have information on this?
 
squidd

squidd

Active Member
Depends on the ballast your running them on...and the brand of bulb...and the K of the bulb...
It's all about the amount of PAR (photo synthetic available radiation)
Different bulb mfgs (same K) will have different PAR on same ballast..
Same Bulb mfgs (same K) will have different PAR on different ballasts
Same bulb mfgs on same ballast will have different PAR from different K values...
And then throw in the "I want a white or blue "Look" to my tank"....
It's all about picking and choosing, and possibly compromise with cost/color/PAR when setting up MH...
It's really not "THAT" difficult...there are charts and graphs and color comparisons readily available (IF you do your research) showing the effects of different bulb/ballast/K/Mfgs...
The "short answer" to the question above is "Yes...and..No"...
The not so short answer is...With the "wrong" combination (bulb ballast K) a 150 DE is = an "average" 175 mogul setup...
With the "right combo" (bulb ballast K) a 150DE can be = or > an "average" 250 mogul setup...PAR wise...
 
reefraff

reefraff

Active Member
I am assuming you are running an electronic ballast. Unfortunatly magnetic ballasts drive double ended lamps a little stronger (a little over 10 percent in your case) than the electronic ones. With the electronic ballasts you will get the best light with the 10000K XM lamp (of those tested) but if you have a magnetic ballast BLV lamps do better, situation like Squidd mentioned above.
I am running 3 10K BLV halides over my 125 and everything seems happy. I have a little maxima clam that insists on stayting in the sand but another seems happy on his rock. I haven't had them long enough to say whether it will be enough light or not but the SPS which I keep up on the rocks seems to be doing fine.
The advantage of getting 250 watt halides would be the ability to move up to a 14000K lamp which really helps bring out the colors. People rave about the Phoenix 14k lamp.
 
stuckinfla

stuckinfla

Active Member
Talking about what type of ballast making a difference, look at this....the one on the left is a M57 with a 175 10K This is how my tank lookded for 8 months.
On the right is a M58 with the same 175 10K. BIG difference.
 
squidd

squidd

Active Member
M-57 is a 175 watt MH ballast...
M-58 is a 250 watt MH ballast...
If your running a 175 watt bulb on the M-58 (right side) your "overdriving" it and for sure it'll be brighter...
For a SHORT time...
 
lamaface

lamaface

Member
What would be to much light for mushies and softies?? i want to get 3 150ww 13000k for my 100G reef which at the moment is running 6 T5s (324ww combined light)... Now im still gonna run 4 T5s + the 3 Halides on my tank... Will that be a bit too much light (666w) for the softies in my tank? Other than the softies i have 1 clam, lotsa SPS + bunch of random hard corals (frog spawn, Long tentacled plate coral ect). Maybe i'll just get 2 MH for the sake of my softies... Wat y'all think?
 
reefraff

reefraff

Active Member
LAMAFACE,
How are your critters reacting to the T5's? I went from T5 to halides which left me with a lot less PAR if you can believe that but I think the corals are happier. My T5's were overdriven which may have been providing too much light for the LPS and soft corals. My frogspawns polyps were swollen up huge under the T5's and they look more normal with halides. I would guess the 150 watt halides are about equal to your T5's in intensity assuming you are running a good T5 system. My orange shrooms seem to be happy under both but my leathers stay open all the time under the halides while they would retract after 4 or 5 hours at times with the T5's.
I think you will be fine with the 150 halides but if your tank is over about 20" tall I'd stick with 10K lamps to have enough PAR.
 
stuckinfla

stuckinfla

Active Member
Originally Posted by Squidd
M-57 is a 175 watt MH ballast...
M-58 is a 250 watt MH ballast...
If your running a 175 watt bulb on the M-58 (right side) your "overdriving" it and for sure it'll be brighter...
For a SHORT time...

Not using 175 bulbs.....I had the 175's, but the 250's had just come in and was doing comparisons :D
 
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