Help with Halides for 72g

[scottfaulkner11]

Would two 150w or two 250 watts be the better choice?

[charlie]

250W, would be my vote if you are gonna do the halide thing.

[scottfaulkner11]

cool, just ordered a set up with two 250's and 18 led moonlights. f'in petland tried to sell me this fixture for 1000, but i found it for 700 on sale down to 530 online. its the current usa 48" sunpod. Figured id go with something proven to work on what i plan to get instead of playing the guessing game on if it will and how high i need to place the items haha. plus i like the look the halides give to the water. it comes with 14000k bulbs- good?

[charlie]

That is probably gonna depend on whose 14K bulbs they are??? It is real hard to say whether or not you are gonna like them until you crank them up, and let them burn in for a while.

[scottfaulkner11]

that i dont know.. it doesnt say, it just says 2 250w hqi-mh bulbs. but ive been looking at reviews of the fixture online and yet to find a bad one

[scottfaulkner11]

thank god i decided to look online for it though before i got it from the store haha, bc Marine Depot had it for half the price

[charlie]

Well that is good news on the reviews!!! Are they single ended or double ended? I am guessing double ended.

[scottfaulkner11]

yeah it is! they are powerpaq double ended..?

[charlie]

I have never used a double ended bulb, strangely enuf!!!! Does the fixture have fans, I hope!!!!

[scottfaulkner11]

really? haha yeah it does its got a couple of those

[charlie]

really? haha yeah it does its got a couple of those

Chances are you are gonna need them!!!!

[scottfaulkner11]

oh i know, at least.. especially bc i cant hang them my ceiling is very high up where the tank is haha so im going to have to use the docking mounts

[charlie]

How far are the lights going to be off of the water line?

[scottfaulkner11]

i can't find anything that says.. it comes with docking mounts as well as a hanging kit. I have no clue how i could mount it from my ceiling bc at the point above the tank is probably 12-15 ft high and slanted at about a 30 degree angle

[Ninong]

Scott,

There are other ways to suspend a light fixture above the aquarium if your ceiling is too high without using the feet attached to the fixture. If you use the feet that come with the fixture, you may end up with the fixture too close to the water's surface. You will have to find out by trial and error. You may be able to get by with the feet afixed to the fixture if that gives you at least 8" of clearance between the water's surface and the bottom of the fixture. It also help if there is at least one small ventilation fan blowing across the water's surface. I am assuming this is an open-top tank and you are not trying to rig any sort of canopy over the tank, which would cause even more heat problems.

The 14,000K lamps may give you a pleasing color but they may not be all that effective compared to 10,000K. If you had gone with the 150w size, I would have said that you would almost certainly have to switch them for 10,000K lamps.

Most 14,000K lamps suck! Some of them do have a "pretty" appearance, but that's about it. You can always try these out and see how you like them and then, eight months from now, switch to something else if you want to.

Good luck!

[scottfaulkner11]

Thanks for the help, Im not sure high tall the feet will place it, but i can almost guarantee you it wont be 8" from looking at the pics haha. I do have two small clip on fans blowing over the surface, which has helped dramatically with the t5 fixture ive got right now. And yes its an open top i dont think id ever go with a canopy, at least not in texas bc of the heat issue haha. I will probably try to figure out some way to suspend them over the tank. That would be best for me if i could find a way, bcause right now, with the two fans blowing over the water my tank gets to 79, before the fans it was up to 83. who knows what the halides will do when i get them later this week

[Ninong]

A temperature range of 80-83 F is fine for a reef tank. It's only when it starts to go over 84 F that you can run into problems.

[scottfaulkner11]

oh ok great. One guy told me it needs to be 78 and i needed a chiller, but i was pretty skeptical of it bc he worked at a petstore haha.

[charlie]

There is also nothing wrong with keeping your temp between 77-80. lately the trend seems to be to keep it below 80. JMHO

[scottfaulkner11]

well preferably id keep it under 80, but id rather it be between 80-83 than fork out some more cash for a chiller. maybe in a few months haha but i got into this all ignorantly and bought a tank and a stand thinking i could set up a reef aquarium like that haha. Then started doing research and realized i was dead wrong on that- no help to the lfs who i told i wanted a reef tank and they sold me crushed coral and a fluval 205 and said id be set haha. but i cant blame my mistakes on their stupidity.. anyway ive spent a couple grand this month on all the stuff i need, dont regret it at all and cant wait til its done, but also dont feel like buying a chiller right now too haha