Help me light my anemone SPS reef!

JOKER · Jun 20, 2018

Ok so I am planning an add on tank to my large reef. (84" x 24" x 16" main display) The new tank will be 24" x 16" x 16", and will be plumbed into my main tank sump. I plan to house mainly anemone (carpet, possibly bubble tip), and SPS mainly. I may add a few LPS or softies also. The main tank now runs 3 x 250 watt MH, and 4 T5 using the Hamilton Cebu sun 72". I plan to run the new tank on a reverse light cycle of main tank. I thought about going LED, but I am not sure what to go with after searching, and looking at so many lights. One that came highly recommended was hydra 26, and it seems nice. However I do like MH T5 combo or T5. What do you recommend?? Thanks

Crabs McJones · Jun 20, 2018

JOKER said:
Ok so I am planning an add on tank to my large reef. (84" x 24" x 16" main display) The new tank will be 24" x 16" x 16", and will be plumbed into my main tank sump. I plan to house mainly anemone (carpet, possibly bubble tip), and SPS mainly. I may add a few LPS or softies also. The main tank now runs 3 x 250 watt MH, and 4 T5 using the Hamilton Cebu sun 72". I plan to run the new tank on a reverse light cycle of main tank. I thought about going LED, but I am not sure what to go with after searching, and looking at so many lights. One that came highly recommended was hydra 26, and it seems nice. However I do like MH T5 combo or T5. What do you recommend?? Thanks

If you're considering LED's, I'd recommend Kessil T5 combo. The kessils give the shimmer and color blending of the metal halide without the heat and power consumption of the halide. I currently run a Kessil AP700 with 4 T5 bulbs and love it

JOKER · Jun 20, 2018

Crabs Mcjones said:
If you're considering LED's, I'd recommend Kessil T5 combo. The kessils give the shimmer and color blending of the metal halide without the heat and power consumption of the halide. I currently run a Kessil AP700 with 4 T5 bulbs and love it

I like the aquatic life T5 hybrid system, but it measures 18", and the tank is 16". that would be a little deep for my tank. I wonder if the coverage would be too much. That would let me mount the 360 kessil with 4 T5.

Christopher Davis · Jun 20, 2018

I personally light my reef with kessil T5 combo love it. There are a bunch of options you can go with kinda like what car brand you you choose, I am however loyal to kessil. SPS do very well anemones explode.

2x 160 tuna blues and 4bulb T5HO Ati

JOKER · Jun 20, 2018

Christopher Davis said:
I personally light my reef with kessil T5 combo love it. There are a bunch of options you can go with kinda like what car brand you you choose, I am however loyal to kessil. SPS do very well anemones explode.

2x 160 tuna blues and 4bulb T5HO Ati

What ATI combo bulb are you running?

BoomCorals · Jun 20, 2018

You know what I’m gonna say.

Lumen bright mini pendant with 250w Radium.

Christopher Davis · Jun 21, 2018

JOKER said:
What ATI combo bulb are you running?

2 blue+
1 coral+
1 True actinic

jda · Jun 21, 2018

Since you can tell the difference, you will not likely be happy with the a LED - they can be fine for some things, but they are different. Carpet might need more light than a Kessil can bring (they are pretty weak). Just get another MH for it since you like them.

If Gigs or Mags are in your consideration list, then MH all the way for these light loving creatures.

FWIW - what you do not spend in lighting watts, you will spend in heating watts since you are reverse cycle. There is no wattage/savings argument to be had here, so just pick what you like.

JOKER · Jun 21, 2018

BoomCorals said:
You know what I’m gonna say.

Lumen bright mini pendant with 250w Radium.

I like that idea. With that pendant does it come with mogul base? What would I need to order to get it running?? Thanks

JOKER · Jun 21, 2018

jda said:
Since you can tell the difference, you will not likely be happy with the a LED - they can be fine for some things, but they are different. Carpet might need more light than a Kessil can bring (they are pretty weak). Just get another MH for it since you like them.

If Gigs or Mags are in your consideration list, then MH all the way for these light loving creatures.

FWIW - what you do not spend in lighting watts, you will spend in heating watts since you are reverse cycle. There is no wattage/savings argument to be had here, so just pick what you like.

I agree on the power usage argument. I actually use less power with the halide's than I did when running LED. It is warmer working around tank with all lights on though. LOL

JOKER · Jun 21, 2018

Also would love a gig, and mag in this tank as well. I have wanted to add one to the display, but I would hate to lose all my SPS to an anemone deciding to move. With this new addition, I will not have to worry about that. how many anemone can we squeeze into this 24" x 16" tank is the question.

BoomCorals · Jun 21, 2018

JOKER said:
I like that idea. With that pendant does it come with mogul base? What would I need to order to get it running?? Thanks

Lumen bright mini pendant comes with SE/mogul base. You'd need a bulb and a ballast. The pendant comes with eye hooks to hang from.

https://fragtasticreef.com/lumen-bright-se-metal-halide-pendant/

Christopher Davis · Jun 21, 2018

From experience, you can crank up kessils 100% and they are pretty powerful. To each their own, that being said I have always run a supplemental bulb of bulbs with led. I just have never seen the results from led alone that impress me. Now there are reefers who have amazing results with led alone, not my cup of tea! I love combining multiple light sources go big or go home!

JOKER · Jun 21, 2018

BoomCorals said:
Lumen bright mini pendant comes with SE/mogul base. You'd need a bulb and a ballast. The pendant comes with eye hooks to hang from.

https://fragtasticreef.com/lumen-bright-se-metal-halide-pendant/

Which ballast do you recommend? You know I have a bulb laying around!! LOL. Although I do need to order some as I am down to 3.

JOKER · Jun 21, 2018

Christopher Davis said:
From experience, you can crank up kessils 100% and they are pretty powerful. To each their own, that being said I have always run a supplemental bulb of bulbs with led. I just have never seen the results from led alone that impress me. Now there are reefers who have amazing results with led alone, not my cup of tea! I love combining multiple light sources go big or go home!

I do like kessil, and have had good experience with them. They do require T5 supplement IMO to get the best out of them. I am actually looking into something to supplement my display now to gain more pop, and was thinking kessil or hydra's. It is hard to get something around the Hamilton fixture though.

Christopher Davis · Jun 21, 2018

JOKER said:
I do like kessil, and have had good experience with them. They do require T5 supplement IMO to get the best out of them. I am actually looking into something to supplement my display now to gain more pop, and was thinking kessil or hydra's. It is hard to get something around the Hamilton fixture though.

Agreed! The skimmer a kessil puts out for me is unmatched but I’m not here to sell you a kessil

I’d sell you on t5HO before that!

BoomCorals · Jun 21, 2018

JOKER said:
Which ballast do you recommend? You know I have a bulb laying around!! LOL. Although I do need to order some as I am down to 3.

Been using the hamilton ballasts, they are solid. With 250w electronic selectable ballast you can use hamilton 20k bulb. You can use 250w radium, but electronic ballasts will cause the 250w radium to die early, after about 6-8 months. The correct ballast for the 250w radium is a magnetic M80 but hamilton is out of stock for 2 months on those.

I am currently using radium 20k and hamilton 20k and I think the hamiltons appear to be very nice bulbs.

JOKER · Jun 21, 2018

BoomCorals said:
Been using the hamilton ballasts, they are solid. With 250w electronic selectable ballast you can use hamilton 20k bulb. You can use 250w radium, but electronic ballasts will cause the 250w radium to die early, after about 6-8 months. The correct ballast for the 250w radium is a magnetic M80 but hamilton is out of stock for 2 months on those.

I am currently using radium 20k and hamilton 20k and I think the hamiltons appear to be very nice bulbs.

I was worried you would say that. I was looking at the Hamilton 24" fixture, and noticed they were out of stock. I need to do some research on the Hamilton bulbs or wait on the M80. I do like the M80 for sure! They are super quiet! The only noise I hear from them is on startup. The radium last 12 months at least with them also!

BoomCorals · Jun 21, 2018

JOKER said:
I was worried you would say that. I was looking at the Hamilton 24" fixture, and noticed they were out of stock. I need to do some research on the Hamilton bulbs or wait on the M80. I do like the M80 for sure! They are super quiet! The only noise I hear from them is on startup. The radium last 12 months at least with them also!

Which fixture was it exactly? For what it's worth I did a ton of research on radium vs hamilton 20k, and the spectral graphs are nearly identical, and visually the light is also pleasing but also puts out a ton of PAR. I'm using hamilton 20k going forward. I'll write up an article on it later once I can put it all together.

JOKER · Jun 21, 2018

BoomCorals said:
Which fixture was it exactly? For what it's worth I did a ton of research on radium vs hamilton 20k, and the spectral graphs are nearly identical, and visually the light is also pleasing but also puts out a ton of PAR. I'm using hamilton 20k going forward. I'll write up an article on it later once I can put it all together.

Leaning towards Hamilton for the price difference? the fixture was the Cebu sun 24". it is a little costly though. The pendant setup would be cheaper I think.