MH gurus please advise

tjnorthdakota · May 21, 2016

I have a standard aqueon 4ft 120 gallon tank. Looking to do mostly sps with the tank with lps and softies here and there. I am looking at doing hamilton lights, either the bimimi sun or cayman sun but not sure what I should do for wattage or single or double ended bulbs. tank is 25x25x48". There will be 4x48" dimmable t5 also on the tank, two on each side of the halides. Tank is in the living room with no canopy so lights need to look decent also. If you know of any other fixtures that arent a fortune please advise also.
thanks

jsker · May 24, 2016

Bpb · May 24, 2016

Definitely do the 250 watt bulbs. No question about it. a 120 gallon standard isnt deep enough to require 400 watts and that will cook your water anyway, and 150 watts just won't give you the punch you need for best acro growth and colors. Bulb choice is a tricky one. Many people will recommend the Radiums with Hamilton M80 ballasts. I've run them for a while and the look and growth are fantastic. I would definitely go that route. 120 gallon with 2x250 watt Radiums and 4x54 watt T5HO is really the quintessential SPS growing machine. Keep your bulbs fresh, run ATI/Giesemann/KZ for the T5HO, and you will never have to question your lighting. Use T5HO bulbs here to tweak the color to your liking.

tjnorthdakota · May 24, 2016

Than

Bpb said:
Definitely do the 250 watt bulbs. No question about it. a 120 gallon standard isnt deep enough to require 400 watts and that will cook your water anyway, and 150 watts just won't give you the punch you need for best acro growth and colors. Bulb choice is a tricky one. Many people will recommend the Radiums with Hamilton M80 ballasts. I've run them for a while and the look and growth are fantastic. I would definitely go that route. 120 gallon with 2x250 watt Radiums and 4x54 watt T5HO is really the quintessential SPS growing machine. Keep your bulbs fresh, run ATI/Giesemann/KZ for the T5HO, and you will never have to question your lighting. Use T5HO bulbs here to tweak the color to your liking.

Thanks for the advice, was doing some measuring on the tank and not sure I will be able to fit he t5's with the pendant, will a halide only setup look pretty decent? Yeah I was looking into bulbs, was trying to choose between radiums or people seem to have good things to say about hamilton 14k's, any experience with these? Thanks

Bpb · May 24, 2016

No experience with the Hammys. But with radiums alone they don't need supplement. The look is perfect as is and they have all the growing power you'd need. People generally like the hamiltons but I haven't used them so I cannot comment. The radium has been the gold standard of metal halides for well over a decade

Bpb · May 24, 2016

If you're doing halides alone, I'd strongly recommend getting the m80 ballast and not an electronic ballast. You'll want to squeeze every bit of par you can out of them. Im betting you can fit some t5 in the mix though. It'll help with shadowing and lengthening your photoperiod

Howard1234a · May 24, 2016

I have the Hamilton setup. Initially I had the 250 watt 14k's. I switched to Radiums. They look much better. Growth is better too. My setup is the Cebu Sun with halides and t-5's. I still am tweaking the t-5's. Initially I tried daylight t-5's; too yellow. Then I did Hamilton's bluest bulbs; too blue. Then 2 of the bluest and 2 less blue actinics; I want more blue. My setup is probably 10 years old. Hamilton is the best quality. Fixture looks brand new; no rust or anything. That is hard to accomplish when salt is always creeping or splashing. Pic for reference.

Bpb · May 24, 2016

Great color. Pretty good representation of radiums

tjnorthdakota · May 24, 2016

Nice looking tank! After having a pure t5 setup on current tank from led's then aquiring a radion fixture I decided I didnt like led's anymore, to many settings and adjustments most of which were just based off look and not what the coral needed. I like that all I need is a simple timer to have success with halides or t5

tjnorthdakota · May 25, 2016

Is that a 120 tank you have there?

tjnorthdakota · May 25, 2016

Bpb said:
If you're doing halides alone, I'd strongly recommend getting the m80 ballast and not an electronic ballast. You'll want to squeeze every bit of par you can out of them. Im betting you can fit some t5 in the mix though. It'll help with shadowing and lengthening your photoperiod

So m80 is a magnetic ballast? They have more power than an electronic? Radiums require hqi capable, I wasnt sure what super lumens was on some of the ballasts, must be for electronic ones to run the radiums?

Bpb · May 25, 2016

The electronic ballasts have an hqi setting but doesn't run at the same voltage/amps as the m80. It'll work but the bulbs will be much bluer with less par