Future's so bright, I gotta wear shades!

[jimhobbs]

Good morning all! :)

Ok, I just got through wiring up my new lights and [i]MAN, talk about bright!...I did the mounting and wiring at my office where I could do the neatest possible job...While here, I went ahead and tested out the ballast and bulbs [without the dimmer] to make sure all was connected properly; plugged them in and lets just say my eyes are still getting used to the pain! ;) After the reccommended warm up and check out, I unplugged them and the whole world looks YELLOW now...No, I'm not sampling any of the new designer drugs we've scheduled for Q! :)

Question= I'm currently running a 12 hour photoperiod on the tank with half the wattage...When I put the new lights on, what should I start out with?...6 hours? 8 hours? 10 hours?...If these things hurt my eyes after just being in the room with them, I know my corals will wonder if the sun has gone supernova!...hehe...I like it! :)

Have fun guys!...jim


[This message has been edited by jimhobbs (edited 04-28-2000).]

[Bishop]

Jim: if it were me, I'd drop it down to maybe 8 - 10 hours, but otherwise I still wouldn't worry about it too much, there will be some shock, but your not putting so much light over the tank that it will a great shock. Drop it down a few hours, maybe by shutting off for an hour in the middle, or dimming down or something.. then bring them back up..


or put some aluminum window screen under them for a week and then remove it at the end.

[dragon0121]

Hi Jim,
Hate to crash your thread, well, okay no I don't :D . But I've got the same type of question. My move from my 29g into the 180g :D tomorrow, and I currently have 162W of PC's on the 29g, the 180g will have 320W of VHO 50/50s and Actinics + 800W MH. I'm really curious as to what people would recommend for photo periods and in what combination.

[Nathan]

One week ago I just upgraded to 800W MH + 175W MH (975W total over a 75g tank). I'm taking it slow with the acclimation and have the full power of light on for 4 hours a day. Eventually I will have them on full power or about 8 or 9 hours with a two hour step up to full intensity.

"Real" tropical sun is much brighter than my tank, so I"m not worried. Just be careful not to all of a sudden one day go from NO flourescent to over 800W MH. It takes time for the zooxanthalae to adjust.

-Nathan

[Agu]

Dragon,I'm going from 110 pc to the same setup you have. The first week was 5hr with vho and 4 hr with the MH. I plan to up that one hour per week until the photo period is 12hr vho and 10hr MH. So far after a week, no negative effects and the corals all look good. I'll probably speed that schedule up for the last two to three hours if everything continues to look good.

[dragon0121]

Agu,
I'm going to assume you mean you're running the VHO's and MH's concurrently and will up each 1 hour at the same time.

I was thinking of running the VHO's for a full 12 hour photoperiod, because in the 180g I'll actually have a lower watts/sq. foot than the PC's in the 29g. Then I would just add the MH's for 2 hours a day to start and increase weekly by an hour. Sound good? Sound clueless?

[Marsha, Marsha, Marsha]

Mark at Paragon told me to start my new mh and vho lighting this way. 4 hours a day for 6 days, 5 hours a day for 6 days, 6 hours a day for 6 days and so on till you get up to full amount of time. He said that doing them this way will help keep you from having bad algae outbreaks. for whats its worth, MMM

[jimhobbs]

Words connot describe...

http://jimhobbs.homestead.com/files/DCP01260.jpg

This, for a 29gal tank! :D

Have fun guys!...jim :)



[This message has been edited by jimhobbs (edited 04-28-2000).]

[jimhobbs]

I think I burnt my CCD on my camera out :(

hehehe :eek:

[dragon0121]

D@mn Jim,
That's gotta be hard on the camera :cool: . I remember the first night I fired all 1120W of lights up, with hood sitting upside down on the floor. It was dark outside and I had to drive a friend home, kind of a surreal experience, all of the headlights looked real dim and green/yellow, was hard to judge distances :D .

[This message has been edited by dragon0121 (edited 04-28-2000).]

[Bishop]

Jim: don't fret.. this is a picture of a 400w MH at full intensity.. the camera ccd was just fine... I imagine that it would be ok on yours too...

http://www.ionet.net/~jlawyer/data/4-20-00/halide2.JPG

Dragon: "I don't remember those big purple spots on everything before..!"

[Martyn]

Well jimhobbs
I have just got two screw in BLV 10000k 400w MH that replace my two double ended 10000k 150w MH.
All I need now is a sand beach and deck chairs in the lounge and we can think we are by the sea in Guadeloupe. :)
Martyn

[This message has been edited by Martyn (edited 04-28-2000).]

[This message has been edited by Martyn (edited 04-28-2000).]

[This message has been edited by Martyn (edited 04-29-2000).]

[DaveinKY]

Bishop,
Cool Pic! Very sharp. What kind of digital camera do you have? I'm kinda in the market for one.

------------------
Dave

[Larry M]

LOL Great pics guys!! What other hobby posts pics of their favorite light bulbs? :D I love it.

------------------
Larry M

See my tanks at Northern Reef (http://www.reefcentral.com/northernreef/index.htm)

[Bishop]

DaveinKY: the camera is an olypmus D-450 that I borrowed from a friend... the key to a good digital camera is getting one with a good optical zoom and to hell with the digital zoom.

[Nathan]

...and get a MEGA PIXEL one...

Nice pic!

-Nathan

[dragon0121]

Bishop,
Too funny! I just had Larry put some pictures up for my post and I have a picture that's a full on shot with the hood open. What's amazing is that my (and I assume yours) digital camera will take this picture auto-magically, no adjustments what so ever, and we get great pictures! :D God I love hi-tech toys!

http://www.reefcentral.com/dragon/openlights.jpg

Okay I had to jump on the band wagon :)
SHOW ME YOUR ....lights?

[This message has been edited by dragon0121 (edited 05-02-2000).]

[coralhound]

daragon,
your setup looks nice
you must be ageing the rock?

CH

------------------
Please BUY captive bred marine life...
My website: Moon Tide Reefs (http://www.qis.net/~ckkuehn)

[dragon0121]

CH,
Actually the rock just finished curing. I moved the rock into the tank on Saturday, but the sump was on a runaway with bubbles and I couldn't take any pictures until yesterday. Larry was kind enough to put these pictures up for me :D . http://www.reefcentral.com/dragon_0121.htm


[This message has been edited by dragon0121 (edited 05-02-2000).]

[horge]

Drat.
Even if I wanted to show off MY light here, I'd have to wait for an eclipse to shoot it :D

Hmmm. a block-out filter might do it.

[Rick O]

Jim,

My question is : How do you get away with wiring your lights at work? :D

Rick

[jimhobbs]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Rick O:
My question is : How do you get away with wiring your lights at work? :D
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


hehehe :D I have a unique job in that I work from both my home and office...My office is setup with a nice test bench; as well as good lighting{eyes are failing my in my old age! :D } As long as I keep their network online, they don't much worry...The same network is fed into my study at home...I'm the only one doing this particular job; so I'm sorta the boss...While I'm typing this, I'm scanning ten of my buildings for trouble; then I'll repair them as the day progresses... :)

Best regards...jim


[This message has been edited by jimhobbs (edited 05-03-2000).]

[dragon0121]

Jim,
What length photo period did you decide to go with and how is everything looking?

[80CI]

Hey Jim, I recently went from 72w PC and 30w NO to 380w Icecap VHO and 72w PC. I just cut my photo period down to 8 hours for the first couple of days, then to 10 for two and twelve ever since. Have had no algae problems and no visual stress to corals. By the way, 2 weeks ago I added a blue tip acropora that had just 1 blue tip, and under the VHO/PC's, has turned from a dark to a golden brown and now has about 50 blue tips with growth. also added three small acro frags all of which are showing growth. Go Go little VHO.