Lighting Sggestions needed....

Lostmind · #1 11/16/2006, 10:32 PM

Hello all...

I'm doing a lot of research for my "tank - in - planning" and am seemingly just confusing myself. Especially on the topic of lighting. T5, MH, reflectors, overdriving, spectrum rating, manufacturer, cooling the bulbs and so on and so forth. It's mind boggling. Especially when I just don't have the time necessary to become a lighting expert.

I've spent hours reading sanjays site, it has only made me even more confused.

I've personally used 175 SE, 250 SE, 400 SE and 250 DE and ime, the 250DE was the best. I used ushio bulbs the whole way, running on pfo ballasts. However, the switch to 250 DE was the last switch and by that time, my husbandry practises may have been better, thus making the thought in my head that 250 DE was better then the 400 SE irrelevant. And Sanjay's site seems to support this, since there are a lot of 250 SE bulbs that seemingly are better then all the 250 DE bulbs! lol.

I currently have a pfo hqi 2 x 250w ballast and 2 hamilton pendants for it. I am considering buying the Lumen Max 3 pendants to replace the pfo's. I am also considering buying a teklight or solarblaze T5 fixture and fiddling with some bulb combo's. I'm just really confused

My intention is to have a barebottom, high flow, aggressively skimmed SPS tank (I had a succesful SPS tank with a DSB but had to shut it down).

The tank size I am looking at is:

60" long
24-30" front to back
18-22" tall

Anyone care to make a suggestion? Thanks!

Lostmind · #2 11/16/2006, 10:36 PM

Oh, and I am more then willing to buy new ballast/bulbs/fixtures/etc.... don't have to save my old stuff, even if it would be nice

Lostmind · #3 11/17/2006, 01:00 AM

Doh, and apparently I can't even spell suggestions!!! Bah no wonder it's dropped to the second page already,lol.

JC VT · #4 11/17/2006, 01:33 AM

From what I understand, once you get into 250w and 400w halides, it's mostly aesthetics from there on. I'd suggest scrolling through the TOTM page and checking out which tanks you think look nice and use their lighting as a model :P

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/su...php?s=&menu=15

Lostmind · #5 11/17/2006, 01:43 AM

That's how I originally ended up at the 250w DE in the pfo pendants

Now, I've been tankless a year or so (really should change my sig) and seems that lighting has made some pretty big changes in the T5 area and MH's haven't really changed much at all, except slightly different reflectors available....

Lostmind · #6 11/17/2006, 11:52 AM

Bump for the morning crowd