Another lighting delimma

[cpreefguy]

My current light set-up is a 36" Hamilton hood with a 400w HQI and 2x VHOs.
Problem being that there is quite a bit of shading on the sides...
I was thinking about just going with 2x250w 12k Reeflux halides.
What do you think?

[hammondegge]

i couldnt be happier with my 55 right now running 2 phoenix 150w 14k's only. great color and good growth and a lot of light (in geisseman pendants) though maybe if i had the 250w......

[matt]

What size is your tank?

[dark8nge1]

yeah I have 2x250w 14k hamiltons over my 36" tank and there's pretty much no shade anywhere.

[cpreefguy]

Its a 40 breeder, 36x18x17
Im going to try and find a good deal on 2x250w SE and 2 lumenarc mini reflectors

[GeoB]

Reefexotics.com has some pretty good deals on the lumenarcs and reeflux bulbs.

http://www.reefexotics.com/lumenarc_retro.htm

[matt]

I used 2 175W ushios with home made reflectors on my old 40 breeder and the light was fantastic, but not very blue. When you say "400W HQI" what are you talking about? 400W DE bulb, or 400W mogule bulb with an HQI ballast? I've read that the 400W "HQI" ballast is not really "HQI" just a higher wattage ballast that overdrives bulbs and is not really matched well to any bulbs commonly available. I'm not saying this is a true fact, but I have read it and I believe the guy that said it is the guy that makes lumenarc reflectors. He recommends the M59 for most of the typical 10k 400W bulbs.

Anyhow, a couple of 250W DE mini pendents with phoenix 14K and icecaps would be a good choice. The icecaps are not going to put out the intensity that the HQI ballast will, but the electricity usage is way lower and you don't need that much intensity on your shallow tank. Lumenarc now makes a DE pendent, I wish I had gotten one, I bet its better than the PFO.

You'll definitely get more PAR out of 10K mogule bulbs with the lumenarcs and no shield and the light spread with 2 of them over a 36X18 tank would be pretty ideal, so your idea is a good one too. You just have to either find the mogule bulb that has the color you want or add actinics. You already have the VHOs, but since those are in your fixture would you buy new ones or raid your hood?

[cpreefguy]

its a 400w de
polkster made me an awesome offer on a complete setup w/ lumenarcs, so if I can sell my lights Im going to change it up a bit :)

[JimD]

I used a single xm 250w 10k with vho actinics along with an LA3 reflector and it was just about perfect, in my opinoin, you dont need two lamps for total coverage as long as youre using the LA3 on a 40/45 gallon tank with that footprint.

[cpreefguy]

do you think a single 400w would do the trick?

[cpreefguy]

because in that case I could just gut my fixture and put the DE 400w I have now in one of the HQI lumanarc reflectors and kep my VHOs too...
Hmmmm....

[cpreefguy]

http://coralreefbazaar.com/product_info.php?products_id=184

[matt]

If you go for the lumenarc DE fixture I would love to see it. I think Jim is talking about the mogule base lumenarc which I believe is much bigger. I have no idea about the overall spread difference between the mogule lumenarc and the DE, but I'm curious.

[JimD]

If you go for the lumenarc DE fixture I would love to see it. I think Jim is talking about the mogule base lumenarc which I believe is much bigger. I have no idea about the overall spread difference between the mogule lumenarc and the DE, but I'm curious.

Since spread is determined mostly by the design of the particular reflector and its location in reference to the water surface, I doubt there would be much, if any difference between a SE and a DE bulb, intensity would be another story. Matts right, Im refering to the larger LA3 SE reflector, I believe the dimentions are 19.5" x 19.5". Perfect for that size tank. Sure, you can use a 400 watter, your electric company will love you for it! At 17", its really not necessary.

[matt]

Jim, the reason there might be quite a bit of difference between the Lumenarc mogule and DE fixture is because the reflectors are designed differently, at least they look kind of different. Looking at Sanjays test, the Lumenarc mogule reflector has close to a perfect square light spread; it's really impressive how well it focuses the light in a given area, especially when compared with the other mogule reflectors. Maybe they did the same thing with the DE reflector and it's also a square. The PFO that I"m using is more rectangular, which actually probably fits my tank a little better, but if you were doing two over a 36 X18 tank, 2 squares would be perfect.

But, I would definitely agree that 1 400W bulb, especially running on a HQI ballast with the really high quality lumenarc reflector would be PLENTY of light for a 40 breeder.

[cpreefguy]

Yeah, Im still not sure as to what I want to do...
I really want to gut my fixture, put the VHOs 2" off the water like theyre supposed to be, and find some way to retrofit my 400w DE into the reflector. Apparently Lumenarc is working on a 400w DE model and all they have now is one for the 250w...

[cpreefguy]

hey matt, do you have that link to sanjays lumenarc test?

[cpreefguy]

well, decided to go with 2x250w SE 14k halides in lumenarc minis. I think Ill be alot more happy with this setup...