Lighting Questions

[longhorn_20m]

I currently have a Oceanic 58 that is running 4x39 watt Sunlight Supply T5. I have been thinking about upgrading to MH to increase growth of corals.

Plan:

Keep 2x39 to use for actinic supplementation and add a single MH, guessing 250 watt. What ballast, reflector/pendant, and bulb do you recommend?

[cpreefguy]

For a 58g I would recommend a 400w DE halide. I had a 400w DE 20k over my 58 last summer and it worked very well. You can get a retro off of Ebay for relativly cheap, thats including a new bulb, reflector, and electronic ballast.

[longhorn_20m]

for a retro DE, don't you need a protective UV glass shield?

[cpreefguy]

Yeah, I had a pendent, but its pretty easy to put rails in your canopy for the glass, Home Depot can cut you a piece to size. Or you could go with a SE, not as much hassle, but also not as much output

[longhorn_20m]

Okay so I'm leaning towards an Ice Cap ballast, any bulb recommendations?

[Ross]

xm 20k is hard to beat, cheap and it looks great. There are many other great bulbs out there...ushio, coralvue, etc. Most are more expensive though.

[greatwit]

I think you would be fine with a 250w hqi in a reef optix reflector, or a 400w se in a luminarc reflector. A 20k bulb will have nice coloration, but much more limited growth. The reeflux 10ks have been a pretty popular choice lately.

[fishypets]

I have used about 6 different bulbs in the last 6 months and have to say I like the 12K Reeflux on the 400W PFO HQI ballast.

[longhorn_20m]

With the 12k do you also have actinic supplement? Real blue?

[longhorn_20m]

I have been looking at the below:

http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=SL-904335&Category_Code=Sunpendant

What are the pros/cons for mongul vs double ended?

[fishypets]

My lighting consist of 12K reeflux on HQI ballast and 160W of 420nm T5 actinic

[brewercm]

Just for info purposes, I have two 250 watt 14K Hamiltons on ARO electronic ballasts with two actinic VHOs. The actinics will give you a true Actinic 03 light for your corals benefits but the Hamilton 14Ks are pretty blue without it.

[J_G]

I have a 135G tank. I am running 2 250 12K reefflux DE bulbs, 2 150 10K DE aqualine Bushke's, and 2 160W VHO super actinic 03 bulbs. For me, there is nothing like running super actinic 03 VHO (nothing compares). ;)