cheeto
06/17/2004, 11:28 PM
I have come to the conclusion that my current LFS bought, cheapy, not water tight Helios lights will most probally catch my house on fire in the near future. Two of the acintic bulbs have dark black lines forming inside of them, and in all of the end caps I can see salt creep and corrosion.
My GF wants to keep clams and I would like to eventually keep some SPS. The tank is 12Dx24Hx24W. Among my concerns for switching to MH is that my tank already runs hot (I strugle to keep it under 80.1) and also using up electricity. Because of this I have come to the conclusion that I only want to run one 250W SE MH bulb. I am looking to purchase The 250W Retrofit kit from hellolight.com (http://www.hellolights.com/25methalbalk.html). Along with a 12k Sunburt bulb from Marindepot.com (http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=MB6611). I am wondering how high I will have to place this setup off of the water surface to keep heat to a minimum and also if this bulb will look nice without any acitinic suplimentation. Or if you have any other bulbs that you think I would like better.
One last note I have about 4" of sand on the bottom of the tank so it is only about 20" from the top of the water to the sand bed.
Here is a pic of my current very dangerous lights.
http://you.dontknow.us/tank/canopyon.JPG
My GF wants to keep clams and I would like to eventually keep some SPS. The tank is 12Dx24Hx24W. Among my concerns for switching to MH is that my tank already runs hot (I strugle to keep it under 80.1) and also using up electricity. Because of this I have come to the conclusion that I only want to run one 250W SE MH bulb. I am looking to purchase The 250W Retrofit kit from hellolight.com (http://www.hellolights.com/25methalbalk.html). Along with a 12k Sunburt bulb from Marindepot.com (http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=MB6611). I am wondering how high I will have to place this setup off of the water surface to keep heat to a minimum and also if this bulb will look nice without any acitinic suplimentation. Or if you have any other bulbs that you think I would like better.
One last note I have about 4" of sand on the bottom of the tank so it is only about 20" from the top of the water to the sand bed.
Here is a pic of my current very dangerous lights.
http://you.dontknow.us/tank/canopyon.JPG