luminarcs and lighting options

[sly fox]

ok, so im planning my new tank...

48x 36x 25 starphire

i was a vho guy, then when i got into sps a t5 guy, but have used de's on nanos...

i was thinking 2 x 400w se bulbs on luminarc reflectors, on electronic ballasts, not sure if i should plan for supplementary t5s as well, would those bulbsbe a good enoughlight spread for this size tank?

thanks

 

[sly fox]

the ballasts are up for review by the way lol, any ballast suggestions

 

[Reef Pets]

I would go with CoralVue ballast. I am not only saying that because I am a distributor for CoralVue! But, I run (5) 400 watt ballast and the have worked perfect for the last 18 months. And, my electric bill went down drastically since I switched to CoralVue from Ice Cap.

 

[sly fox]

thanks, the coralvue dimmable ones look nice, i wanted to use radiums do they work ok with them, or is it better to use a magnetic pulse ballast?

thx

 

[cl2ysta1]

We are running two luminarcs with 400w mogul radiums on coralvue ballasts


our tank is about 49x38x30

we have no issues growing sps on the bottom.

they are mounted so the bulbs are 16 inches above the top of the tank. we also have no heat transfer issues because of this. I love the combination. we do not supplement with t5s, but have a moonlight for wakeup and sundown for the fish.

 

[sly fox]

cool, similar size tho your tank is a bit deeper... your canopy must be quite high to get them 16" off! my current setup is 27" deep and i have 14 t5s but i found i cant do well with sps in the bottom 7" or so...

i assume you're happy with the colours you get...thanks for the pics

 

[Reef Pets]

Absolutely. Radium and CoralVue work great together.

 

[cl2ysta1]

yup the colors are great. The only thing we've noticed with the radiums is that when they reach about 10 months they significantly dim. I noticed our tank didnt look as bright as i remembered and our sps colors started to significantly decline. In that picture we had just replaced the left side bulb you can see how bright it is on that rock. Colors came back in teh sps in about 3-4 weeks. Make sure you are very dilligent about changing the bulbs.

 

[sly fox]

now that i look you can really see the difference in the bulb intensities! thats worth knowing...

looks like im sold, luminarcs, coralvue ballast and radiums

do you know anything about the coralvue dimmable ones? is it possible to raise the intensity on some sort of timer?
thanks

 

[cl2ysta1]

we have a dimmable ballast but i've never used it. A lot of people overdrive radiums on 400w hqi ballasts but they burn out quicker. THey are however MUCH bluer and brighter for their time period that they work. These work great for us and look great with no actinics. We actually tried putting actinics up but radiums are so blue you can tell the difference with them on or off.

 

[normanbates]

do i spy achillis tang?

 

[sly fox]

sweet, i was just wondering if its possible to increase intensity over a dayly cycle and reduce at the end of the light phase on a controller...

 

[bkv1997]

Sly:

I just recently switched from 250 watt DE 14k pheonix bulbs.

I'm now using 250 watt SE Radiums in Luminarc reflectors powered by IceCap ballasts.
When doing my reserach I talked to people who experienced greater results from the 250 over the 400s. My local fish store is also having to replace his 400 bulbs very often.

I'm not 100% sure on all the reasons why, but from what I can tell the german radium bulbs aren't actually 250 and 400 they are actually 270 and 360 watt, so I assume the 400 watt ballasts overdrive the 400s causing non ideal running conditions. However, if you overdrive the 250s you are close to ideal running conditions for the 250 radiums.

http://www.radium.de/e/produkte_overview.html?pe_id=181&pcon_list=1854,1855,2498,2569

A link that might help. Also this is just what I took away from my research when I was making a decision. Hopefully others here will be able to add to this and help you make the right decision.

Brandon

 

[bkv1997]

I should also note I love the new setup.

My PAR went from roughly 330 to over 700 with the upgrade at the same spot.

I can also post some tank pics if you'd like but my SPS at 24" deep look great.

Brandon

 

[deepbluescuba]

Sly: might want to look at lumenbright reflectors also by Coralvue.

 

[sly fox]

lumen bright eh? how do they compare to luminarcs...?

does anywhere just do coralvue lighting packages

 

[sly fox]

i believe the 400s are actually 360s arent they so pretty much any ballast overdrives them... i had heard the radiums are best on a magnetic pulse start but then other people say electronic are better...

i guess on a dimmable ballast you can run them lower and save on bulb life... would that also produce a bluer light?

 

[cl2ysta1]

do i spy achillis tang?

yup. he's my buddy.

 

[sly fox]

how aggressive is he... theyre so cool, but i always worried that id endup with a blood bath getting one..

yup. he's my buddy.

 

[cl2ysta1]

how aggressive is he... theyre so cool, but i always worried that id endup with a blood bath getting one..

well he would need to be the last fish added to your tank. I tried to add clownfish and he tried to kill them. CLOWNFISH!!!!!! He is however ok with everyone else in the tank except my hippo. THey dont really like each other, but they dont really fight. just flare at each other if they ever get close.