Light Question

[rob.holbrook]

So, I decided it is time to take the plunge and buy MH lighting for my tank.... I am going to purchase two MH Pendants 250 Watts each ARO ballasts, 14 k Ushiro bulbs three months old for 200 bucks ... is this a good price....

Also I currently use a coralife PC system that has 4 65 watt bulbs two atinics and two daylights 10000k lamps... should I try to keep these?

I was considering building a different canopy that can house both the MH light pendants and the pc lights what are your thoughts ....

the pendants are from hellolights.com it was part of a retrofit kit with t-5s

[szwab]

sounds pretty decent what type of pendants/ reflectors. Reflectors make all the difference IMO. Did you ask why the person was selling after 3 months?

[rob.holbrook]

it came from this post

http://corareef.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2357

the lights came from here

http://www.hellolights.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1358

I think he just decided to get out of doing saltwater.... looks like he was selling three tanks total...

what do you guys think.. he said they were retrofit kits from hellolights.com and came with the vhos

[icu2]

Looks pretty decent; esp for $200.

[Shark Keeper]

I used the ARO ballsts on my 120 and love them. That is a great price since the ballasts alone are $99 each.

I personally use the Coralvue 10k's since I like the crisp white look and am using Actinic T5's.

[rob.holbrook]

so do you think that keeping the pc lights with the MH lights would be too much?

[szwab]

if it has vho's then I would ditch te pc's

[MarineFishGuy]

If you keep the PCs I would get all Actinics and ditch the 10Ks.
Sounds like a good deal to me.
I run VHOs (Acrtinic White) and PCs (Actinic 03).
The VHOs put off a lot more heat, but really make the corals open up well.
I use the PCs to provide dawn and dusk lighting (14 hours).
I run the VHOs for about 9 hours.
In your case I would run the MH for about 8-9 hours and use the PC fixture for your sunset and sunrise affect.
HTH,
Ken

[rob.holbrook]

So I bought them.... but I am confused because the reflector isnt like what I am used to seeing.. I am used to seeing on that is more of a rectangle and long with highly polished aluminum on it.... this one is more of a rounded cone chase with the socket at the top and the light all the way enclosed.....

Is this okay? or should I buy a rectangular one?

[Shark Keeper]

Can you post a pic?

[rob.holbrook]

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=229251



Here is a picture of one similar .... mine is a silver color on the outside... it uses the hellolight avo ballasts .... and has new 10k bulbs ushio (SP) bulbs when I seen them I told him they were not what I expected and he took 50 bucks off ... so two lights only costed me 150 bucks..... from what I have seen the bulbs cost more than 80 bucks each .... I just dont want to start creating a topper if I need to use different reflectors

[rob.holbrook]

Okay so I went to Hellolights.com....

The ballast is a ARO Electronic Ballast - normally 99 bucks each...

http://www.hellolights.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=462


light bulb is a Ushio bulb 250 Watt - normally 79 bucks each....

http://www.hellolights.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=469

I paid 150 bucks total .... I think I got a good price.... just am not sure about the reflectors....

they look like my last post just aluminum color...

looks like I can buy cheap ones from this site... any suggestions or should i just use the ones I have

[MarineFishGuy]

For MH, reflectors make all the difference.
Phishy Business has some of the really good ones (Lumenarc) but they are not cheap.
However when you consider that a good reflector can increase light distribution and increase intensity, it is worth spending the money.

With VHO reflectors are not as important because they are long tubes so the dispersion is more even compared to the shorter more intense MH bulbs. If you use the URI bulbs they have internal reflectors anyway.

Look up some MH PAR distribution models with different reflectors.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/2/review/view?searchterm=reflectors
This one is a good read about the affects different reflectors can have.

HTH,
Ken

[rob.holbrook]

So you are saying the Usicho lights that I have already have a built in reflector on them....

[billzie]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11068172#post11068172 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rob.holbrook
So you are saying the Usicho lights that I have already have a built in reflector on them....

No, he was referring to VHO bulbs having the internal reflector (and not every VHO bulb does, but most do).
IMO, unless used bulbs can be absolutely age-verified, then they are not included in my estimate for pricing used equipment.
Also, did you test everything yet? Just install them over your tank and see if you like it since you already have them. A lot of banter over reflectors, bulbs, etc is moot until you decide that what you have is good or not. JMHO.

Bill.

[Reefdiver72]

If there aluminum you could polish them out with some mothers wheel polish it works well on them and salt creep doesnt seem to bug them or stick to them.