Lights are here! Thanks Adam!

[foxstop]

Hi,

Just made the trip to Adam's at Tridacna Reef (http://www.tridacnareef.com) to pick up my lights.
Here's a picture
http://www.foxesreef.com/hqi_lights.jpg

2 Mini HQI Pendants with 250w dual PFO ballast housing 250w 20K Coralvue bulbs. I fired them up and they put out an insane amount of light! Next I have to figure how I will suspend them. Once I get the tank in place I'll figure that out. I purchased the cables to hang them as well.

Looking like early to mid January for water, lights and rock!

Thanks again to Adam. I learned a lot throughout this process and even though we hit a glitch with the lights at first (I'll let Adam explain:)) everything worked out great!
I'm on my way to the vendors forum to post some feedback now.

Take care all!

Brian

[ADS]

Thanks Brian-
We initially had electronic 250W CoralVue ballasts to fire the bulbs but they don't fire HQI DE bulbs except in 150W. I spoke w/ Brian who was OK w/waiting for the PFO HQI dual ballast to be shipped.
The bulbs are INTENSE! I'm thoroughly impressed w/ CoralVue's product thus far.
Thanks again for the kind words Brian and glad you could come up to see the setup here.
Adam

[masterswimmer]

Brian,
Those lights look awesome. Bet they'll see that glow from the space station.

Good luck,
Russ

[Tomzpc]

Looks awesome Brian. Are you planning to run the halides alone or are you going to supplement with flourescent actinics? I'm assuming the latter since you opted for 20k's.

[drock59]

how much did you pay?

[drock59]

Those light look amazing

[foxstop]

Tom,
You are correct I'm planning to start out with just the halides and see how things go first. If I need supplementation I would probably go the T5 or VHO route. Interestingly enough with 20K bulbs I would need some lower spectrum supplementation 6500k to 10K. I will evaluate the bulbs for coral health and for looks before I decide what to add supplements.
When I turned them on they started out a bit yellow, then went to white, then to a whiteish blue.
I figure if I get things going within the next month or so I can have a meeting here either spring or summer:)

DROCK: Here is the page that Adam(ADS here) from Tricacna Reef lists his prices for these: http://www.tridacnareef.com/PFOL.html
The cost is about $300 per fixture, but I would hesitate to quote an exact price as I didn't pay shipping (I picked it up) and we had a ballast issue as Adam described earlier in this thread. I also purchased PFO's cable system and that ups the price by about $30 a fixture. I had done much research and price checking before settling on these. Meeting Adam and mulling this over with the crew at the meeting at Ian's house helped me decide as well.

I'll keep everyone posted and thanks for the enouragement!:D

[drock59]

Thats a little more than i plan to spend but WOW do they look nice. I bet those are going to be absolutely amazing on your tank. I am just a poor college student so hopefully one day i will be able to afford better lights.