T5 or PC?

[laxchick008]

Also how much extra in electricity is it to run the magnetic ballast over an electronic one- I've read very conflicting reports, some saying e-ballast saves electricity and some saying no diff in electric. consumption, just difference in excess energy output ie: heat for magnetic and rf waves for electronic. Anyone know what's right?

[BryanJ]

I reccomended the 250w because the radium bulb comes with that particular unit and will give you the blue color without the actinic supplementation. However if you don't like the color you can get the 10k bulb and supplement according to personal taste. 20k radium bulbs are only available in 250w and higher. Yes that is more then enough light for the whole tank. MH light, lights a 2ft x 2ft area.

The difference in ballasts is probably like 25w more in the magnetic. Electronics are usually exact wattage. In the lighting forum there are 2 threads JBNY on bulbs and Electric130 on ballsts. You will find more detailed answers then I can give you.

[PRC]

Originally posted by laxchick008
I've read very conflicting reports

I've come to expect conflicting reports when it comes to lighting .

The (weasel) reason for this is that it's pretty complicated. For example, how much a ballast overdives a bulb depends on both the ballast and the bulb. You can see for yourself here: http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...hreadid=254667 and here http://www.cnidarianreef.com/lamps.cfm . Some HQI ballasts can overdrive some 250W bulbs by as much as 100W! It gives you lots of light but it's probably not very good for the bulbs, and certainly generates lots of extra heat.

Those sites also have photos of tanks with various bulbs to give you an idea of the colors you'll get. This is all completely subjective. One thing to remember is that the higher K bulbs typically (but not always) give you less PAR/W, though I don't think that's an issue with any of these bulbs over a tank that shallow. IMO the 20k's are too blue on their own. I lean towards the 10k-15k if I weren't going to supplement with actinics.

In 12" of water I'd think that most anything will do fairly well with any of your lighting options, 175W, 150DE, 250W MH or 4x24W T5. The 250 would probably drive faster growth in high light critters like some clams, anemones and maybe acros. Though, IMO it may be a bit much for critters with more moderate light requirements like your rics or brains, especially in 12" of water. Also, fast growth is not always desirable in the limited space of a 29G. Depends on what your after.

FWIW I'd probably go with:
Sunlight Supply Reef Optix 3 DE 150W HQI pendant (great reflectors, SS has a very good rep, 150W cuz IMO you don't need more, DE cuz they're more efficient)
Electronic ballast (efficient, cooler, longer bulb life, less PAR but it shouldn't matter in this application)
Bulb somewhere in the 10k-15k range (just what I like)

[laxchick008]

Some very good info, been checking out prices for all the components.
Anyone know how much heat this will increase the tank temp by? I read a thread where the ultimatenoob said his temp jumped up to 84 degrees with a 250 HQI on his 29g and it was hanging 22 inches above the water!

I really can't afford a chiller and think it would also be a waste for a tank so small, but these pendands don't have a fan option as far as I can tell- anyone seen differently?
Thanks guys

[PRC]

You'd want to put the fan blowing over the water surface to increase evaporative cooling. You'll have to stay on top of your topoff water, or better yet, setup an automated topoff system. I'm pretty sure MH's are more efficient when run hot, so you don't really want to blow air across the bulbs. Depending on how cool you keep the tank room you may be able to keep the temp in range with just the fan(s) with a 150W and eballast. If you need a chiller you can probably just get one of those little solid state jobs http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewIt...Product=CW1111 . They're pretty reasonably priced and very efficient.
The T5's will also increase your tank temp since they need to be much closer to the water surface to be effective. Maybe not as much as the MH but it would probably be close.

[laxchick008]

wow I had no idea that T5's would heat a tank. I noticed (PRC) that you have T5 lighting on your 220, do you use fans and if you had it to do over again would you use T5 or MH's?

I'm leaning a little back toward the T5's even though 4 x 24W probably won't be as brigth as a 150W or 250W HQI right? and they're initially more expensive-but I think the longer bulb life kind of balances out the cost in the long run.
The main reason for the shift back to T5 is I don't want to shock my corals every morning with darkness to BAM! Blazing middle-of-the-afternoon lighting when I turn on the MH's, and its a little pricey to get the MH/T5 or MH/PC combo kits.

What do you recommend? T5 or MH

[PRC]

My T5's seem to raise the temp in the tank by ~1 deg F. It's really hard to tell if it's just the lights though since the ambient temp in the house generally goes up during the day as well. The bulbs get fairly hot, though nowhere near as hot as MH's, but mine are very close to the water, ~1.5". I guess if you put them a few inches off the water and put fans on them (I hove no fans at the moment) they probably wouldn't raise the temp by anything significant.
If I had it to do over again? Actually, I do. I'm going to add two 40G tanks to my system and I'll use my existing 3' T5's on those (4 each). I'm kind of waiting to hear moonpod's results on his switchover to MH from T5 before I make my decision. He went from 8x80W T5 to 4x250W DE MH, which are close to the options I'm considering.
I think I remember Eric Borneman metioning something about sunrise/sunset in his book, just can't remember what it was. I'll look it up when I get home. One option is to put the tank somewhere where it'll get some ambient sunlight and then don't turn on the MH until after the sun comes up. Also, MH's actually come on verrry slowly, takes a few minutes for them to reach full brightness.
It's a tough call on a 24" tank. It'll take quite awhile for the extra bulb life on the T5's to pay off since new ones will run you about $95 and the MH will only be about $65. I think the costs over the first couple of years will probably be pretty close. I'd do some more research on the heat issue with MH and if that looks like a problem I'd probably go with the T5's since it probably won't be as bad with them.

[laxchick008]

well I finally bought some lights. Got the 250W sunlight supply reef optix III w/ 10,000K ushio bulb and Icecap electronic ballast
for $300, I don't think it was too bad

[BryanJ]

You won't be sorry with that purchase. I wish I could afford the same. Enjoy the new light.

[PRC]

That should work very well for you, all very good stuff. Your critters certainly will not want for light!
best of luck with it!

[cougaraug]

It looks too me like setup is way cheaper with T5. I found these on ebay for $112 w/ shipping and bulbs- cheaper than and MH I've seen. Looks like bulbs are $20 each after that. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...395422913&rd=1

[PRC]

The auction says "Bulbs are sold separately in our eBay store"?
If that's true then you need two of these for four lamps which'd be $224, plus four lamps @ ~$100 (didn't have much of a lamp selection in their store, no 24W lamps, all I saw was 39, 54W actinics for about $28). Total $324, no?

[cougaraug]

sorry, wrong link http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...94702513&rd=1. You still only get 10K or actnic, though. so then we have @ $224, no? Bulb repacement will run a little more still, but may be worth it in energy savings and less heat. I'm thinking of going with 4X54 T5 on a 48Lx16D w/ about 4" os sand, so It seems more economical to go with 4X54 T5 instead of 2 175 MHs. There I get less setup, less electricity, and cheaper bulb replacement.

[PRC]

cougaraug, On a 48" tank only 16" deep I would definitely go with T5's. laxchick008 was asking about lighting a 24" tank which only requires one MH and the T5's don't really get any cheaper when they get shorter.
that auction looks like all the right stuff. You need to make sure they're Sunlight Supply reflectors, but it looks like them in the photo. The 10k and actinic bulbs might be ok depending on your taste in lighting colors. I'd guess it would be mostly white, maybe leaning a little towards blue.