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Don't forget that the knock on the MH is the heat. If you go with the floating canopy, up off of the tank, that would help your tank temp. But there is no denying that the bulbs get very hot and will add heat to your room and maybe your tank water. You will need to be prepared to deal with that. I had about five 4" fans in the canopy of that 75. You also need to be very sure you don't accidentally touch that bulb when working in the tank. You will only do it once. Ha!
 
Fin said:
Don't forget that the knock on the MH is the heat. If you go with the floating canopy, up off of the tank, that would help your tank temp. But there is no denying that the bulbs get very hot and will add heat to your room and maybe your tank water. You will need to be prepared to deal with that. I had about five 4" fans in the canopy of that 75. You also need to be very sure you don't accidentally touch that bulb when working in the tank. You will only do it once. Ha!
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It will be a floating canopy above the tank. How many hours would you run MH? In my head I'd say on at noonish and off at 2 or 3. Am I on the right track?
 
Tidal Gardens
It's a corner, vaulted ceiling.
IMG_20190827_192639427.jpg
 
Katrina71 said:
It will be a floating canopy above the tank. How many hours would you run MH? In my head I'd say on at noonish and off at 2 or 3. Am I on the right track?
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It's been a while, but I think mine were on from 11 to 3, so something that you would need to play with to find what you like.
 
JoshH said:
By daylight settings do you mean mostly whites/green/red and little to no blue/UV atall? I never really played with my LEDs all that much and still don't so alot of the spectrum blending is still outside my ballpark so to speak.
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Yes but not reducing violet or uv
 
Tidal Gardens
Katrina71 said:
I like lighting that colors up coral, but not so blue it looks like an alien spaceship. I guess I prefer a softer look. More natural.
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Me too, it's why I really like the look of Fins tank with the MH combo over it, seems very natural but everything still pops in a softer way without the harsh blue look.
 
Katrina71 said:
Would you happen to have a pic?
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Unfortunately I do not. The tank was a 100 gallon I had back between 1999 - 2003. I was on vacation, family reunion sort of deal, when Enron was playing with the California power grid. Back to back power outages tripped the AC circuit breaker upon coming home and opening the door got a rush of rotten eggs or hydrogen sulfide love... PC at the time wasn't being backed up so lost a lot of our photos. Go figure.

It was a rather simple setup. 100 gallon, 2x175W Ushio bulbs, 2 x 48" SVHO Actinic bulbs, and that was it. LIfe Reef skimmer which I still use today on my 210 gallon tank. Mostly frogspawn and an elegance corals. Mixed zoas and a leather coral. Yellow and purple tang, tomato clowns, and a six line wrasse. See, pretty basic :) The Svho lamps used the ice cap ballase, the MH used a PFO ballast. Neptune with the X10 relays was more or less turning things on and off. Rubbermaid sump and a iwaki return pump I recall. I'll have to see if I have any hard copies of the tank.

The lighting was nice. Had a good afternoon oceanic vibe to it. Like being on a sail boat in the Pacific Ocean catching the trade winds heading to Hawaii sort of deal. The issue for me anyway was at the time the bulbs more or less needed to be replaced every 6 months to a year. I was going to try T5's but, well, let me be honest. I'm a lazy reefer. I dislike chores such as doing water changes and changing bulbs is right up there.

So I've been using LED's ever since.
 
Fin said:
This was the lighting set up on that tank. I didn't even use reflectors, other than the flat reflector screwed to the bottom side of the top of the canopy. Pretty simple, bt it worked pretty well for me.

P0011165.JPG
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I had the bulbs facing the other direction - vertical I guess - with the stainless steel / sheet metal reflectors. The VHO's though ran the same as yours. One in the front, one in the back.
 
Ecoscape Reef Rock
AS
Tidal Gardens
There's a reefer that's on R2R and in my local club selling a DIY MH/T5/LED hybrid he made, says it's not pretty but grows acros. He's since sold off the reefbrite led strips so he only wants $150. Has a 400/250 watt switchable ballast with a 6 month old 14k Ushio 400 watt mh bulb and 4x 2 month old ATI blue plus T5 bulbs.
I believe it's 24 x 24

That's it right now.
I'll keep my eyes open for ya.
 
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