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View Full Version : High Pressure Sodium???

MorandiWine
04/02/2004, 10:23 PM
Has anyone had any experience with using HPS for lighting for SPS's??

Thanks
Tyler
Legal Reefer
04/02/2004, 11:20 PM
wrong spectrum....too red
Entropy
04/02/2004, 11:57 PM
I am pretty sure you can use the ballast to fire a proper wattage Iwasaki bulb... I don't know if that helps any but if you have the ballast(s) already...
Legal Reefer
04/03/2004, 12:17 AM
I thought you needed a special "conversion" bulb to run an MH on a HPS ballast. Could be wrong, however.
dave2184
04/03/2004, 12:21 AM
I am pretty sure you can use the ballast to fire a proper wattage Iwasaki bulb... I don't know if that helps any but if you have the ballast(s) already...

Iwasakis will fire on Mercury Vapor and Metal Halide balasts not HPS.
culdublvd
04/03/2004, 12:32 AM
Supposedly a 430hps will run hqi 400watt mh bulbs I think. I reasearched this a while ago and the only reason that these aren't used is because of our preference not the coral's. They care about the par lumens they recieve. I have been saving up some money to get a set-up running under hps to really see how it works.
harper
04/03/2004, 02:03 AM
I'm sure HPS lamps over a tank would look nasty. Some people say 10k lamps are to yellow....Corals will grow under them. HPS are not for a display tank.
culdublvd
04/03/2004, 03:17 AM
Hps would probably only be good for grow out tanks.
MorandiWine
04/03/2004, 12:05 PM
The reason that I am asking is that I have access to a whole bunch of these light systems. We have used them in growth chambers for regular plants and the growth rate was awesome compared to the regular MH's. Yeah the yellow light would be pretty bad but maybe that could offset by actinics?

Thanks for your replies,

tyler
harper
04/03/2004, 12:40 PM
It will take a lot of actinic watts. The first HID lamp I ever saw over a tank was at a public aquarium. They had an illegal shipment of clams they were holding for trial. They were under a huge HPS. Seemed fine. When I first started using MH 4300 K was the highest you could get. With 2 HO Phillips 03s it looked ok. Honestly I didn’t even mind un-supplemented Iwasaki 250 watters...which are green/yellow. I think it would be possible to have a nice looking tank with HPS some VHO/t5 actinics and no other tanks in the room...That is no tanks with MH lamps. Its all a matter of visual reference. Post some pics if you do it. Good luck.
culdublvd
04/06/2004, 12:44 AM
Yes your corals will probably grow awesomely with a HPS bulb. I mean a 600 watt Hortilux puts out like 90,000 initial lumens which is a whole lot more then a MH would. And the 1000 Hortilux HPS puts out 140,000 initial lumens. I could see it now, a 6' SPS tank lit by 1 1000 watt HPS hortilux bulb on a light mover. How Nice!