55G w DSB -- MH vs. VHO???

[almostdiva]

OK -- all you reefers who have been doing this longer than I have... need a little advice re: lighting upgrade for my reef. (long story short, I bought PCs when I was "new new" that are not sufficient for what I now want to keep and need to be replaced).

Here's the deal --

standard 55g w a 5 in DSB. In a custom stand w no canopy. Glass covers on top of tank.

I want to keep: clams and not sure of corals and have my eye on a BTA clone and pair of clowns from Dr Mac, Barry's pal.

Was told by one of my LFSs that is very "reef" that 4 110 VHO would do it for me. Was told on another board to look into 2 175 watt 10K MH. From my research (Champion and a couple other sites) looks like I could get 2 175 MH pendants cheaper than I can get a VHO hood.

Anybody use these pendants?

Like them?

how about the new ones w the remote ballasts? Can I put those on the floor/in the cabinet and run the cord up to the ceiling?

Dumb question -- how do you hang them? (OK I'm a girl....)

Thanks for the help.

[jsaltzgi]

I'd recommend going with 2 250 watt MH (10000 K AB/ Ushio or 6500 K Iwasaki) plus using your existing pc hardware (if possible) for supplemental actinic. Or you could go with the MH plus VHO if you're in the mood for a real change.

Should you be interested in the Radium 20000 K bulbs, I'd go with 2 400 watters- you would still have nice colors without actinic supplementation. You could just use the two "pendants" this way. I don't think that the price is that much different for the ballasts/ bulbs. Blueline ballasts plus the radium bulbs seems to be a combo people really like. The new IceCap 400 watt ballasts at www.oceanencounter.com seem nice as well, if you're interested in electronic ballasts. Then there's always the PFO or Sunlight Supply...

Clams are pretty light demanding, and any one of these combinations of lighting would allow you to keep basically any type of coral you wished.

Decisions, decisions!!!

Good luck,
James

[Reefland]

Hi almostdiva!

James hits a lot of the details I would have so I wanted to chime in my recommendation for 250w MH's. The price difference isn't that much more over 175w and the amount of light and options are much greater.

Additionally, if you didn't want to mess with halides, the 4 VHO would be fine to keep clams and some SPS corals too. MH's are more popular for the main source of lighting with VHO or PC supplementation though.

It sounds like one of your concerns is how to house them. Pendents and complete systems suck as the AB Spacelight fixtures can be hung from the ceiling using various types of cable; retro kits can be mounted in a hood if you had one, had one built or built one yourself, just keep in mind that heat is a concern with MH's in an enclosed area.

Just some more thoughts,
Scott Z.

[orm]

I think your local reef store has given you fairly straight forward advice about your lighting. We have a 55 gallon set up in our coral propagation building. We use it to out various small pieces in that are odd or unique. We have been running 4, 110 watt VHO's on this tank for about two years. We are very pleased with them. We have kept everything from clams to SPS corals with great results and excellent color. If you are handy or have a friend who is, you can build an inexpensive canopy that looks really nice to accommodate your lights and a 4" fan for cooling. This will save you some $'s and give you some great lighting.

David:

[dougchambers]

There are some advantages to VHO's over MH IMO. We run 6 110W URI VHO's over our 75RR and have everything from SPS, LPS, Softies, and Clams.

With the VHO's you have greater flexibility to "dial" in the color you are looking for with various combinations of bulbs. I love the look of MH, but we went with VHO to lessen our heat loading and play with different bulb combinations.

Our Acro and Montipora growth rates have really kick started with the new lighting combination. Adding a DIY Ca Reactor didn't hurt either...

I agree with David about building your own hood. If you are hand or know someone that is, you can save some serious money. We built our stand and hood for a fraction of pre-fab cost. Another advantage of building your own is that you can dress it up as much or little as you want. But then again, you need the tools, time, and know how.

Good luck and let us know how your system turns out.

Doug

[Chris Lakies]

Hi-Ya!

I have the same tank you do. I am using 2 175 watt MH's and 3 110 watt VHO's. I bought a black pine canapy from a LFS and added a 46.5 inch reflector from Hello Lights. If you are going to use VHO's go with the 46.5" because the 48" will not fit. I would recommend using VHO's over PC's. Since you already have PC's you could add them to the 2 175 watt MH's which should give you more than enough light for whatever you would like to keep. If you go with MH's I would recommend Ushio 10K's, they are awesome!