Thinking about halides.

aquavista99 · Nov 14, 2017

Halides have always been my preference. T5s and LEDs are nice too but when it comes to growing SPS, halides never disappoint.

A. grandis · Nov 14, 2017

reefndude said:
I think that was the problem.
Thanks

Not many people try that.
I'm glad I could help.
Grandis.

A. grandis · Nov 14, 2017

Nburg said:
I had one and it eas noisy. I use one from Hamilton and its pretty quiet

Can you please post pics of them here?
Thanks.
Grandis.

reefndude · Nov 14, 2017

aquavista99 said:
Halides have always been my preference. T5s and LEDs are nice too but when it comes to growing SPS, halides never disappoint.

That's what Im looking for

Nburg's Reef · Nov 14, 2017

A. grandis said:
Can you please post pics of them here?
Thanks.
Grandis.

I dont have the aquamedic one anymore. The hamilton one can be found on their website. Its a lot smaller than the aquamedic one too. However, with either, you may have to rewire the ballast as the plugs are not universal from ballast to pendant. I have a hamilton ballast and fixture so i didnt have to worry, but i had to wire on a different plug on my aquamedic ballast to work with the hamilton pendant i bought several years ago.

A. grandis · Nov 14, 2017

Nburg said:
I dont have the aquamedic one anymore. The hamilton one can be found on their website. Its a lot smaller than the aquamedic one too.

Thanks for telling us.
Grandis.

cilyjr · Nov 15, 2017

A. grandis said:
I guess the more fans the better

Pics of the tank please..
Grandis.

I don't wanna get too off topic from the ops thread. But I'm just shameless enough for 1 pic.

cilyjr · Nov 15, 2017

Someone had mentioned previous that the proper ballast for the radium Aquastar blue bulb is the M80. That is absolutely correct. I have however had no problems running radium bulb on lumatek adjustable ballasts on the 250 hqi setting. It is a bit different from running out on an m80 but not much.
The 250 hqi (or superlumens on the lumatek) overdrive's it about 10% which is about 275w.

If you visit radium lampen werk GmbH (radium.de I just typed that cuz I think lampen werk is funny) they will tell you the 250 bulb wants to be driven at 270w and the 400 at should be under driven at 360w. Also it should be worth noting that the radium bulb is a quartz burning rather than a ceramic burning bulb which may help contribute to its finickingness. Just a thought as ceramic bulbs should allow for higher Heat

reefndude · Nov 15, 2017

cilyjr said:
I don't wanna get too off topic from the ops thread. But I'm just shameless enough for 1 pic.

Awesome looking tank!

A. grandis · Nov 15, 2017

cilyjr said:
Someone had mentioned previous that the proper ballast for the radium Aquastar blue bulb is the M80. That is absolutely correct. I have however had no problems running radium bulb on lumatek adjustable ballasts on the 250 hqi setting. It is a bit different from running out on an m80 but not much.
The 250 hqi (or superlumens on the lumatek) overdrive's it about 10% which is about 275w.

If you visit radium lampen werk GmbH (radium.de I just typed that cuz I think lampen werk is funny) they will tell you the 250 bulb wants to be driven at 270w and the 400 at should be under driven at 360w. Also it should be worth noting that the radium bulb is a quartz burning rather than a ceramic burning bulb which may help contribute to its finickingness. Just a thought as ceramic bulbs should allow for higher Heat

Thanks very much for the picture and info. Much appreciated. Very nice tank!
Grandis.

cilyjr · Nov 15, 2017

Thanks. It's getting there

Bronx19 · Nov 15, 2017

Besides being single and double ended bulb, is there any difference between the Giessemann Infinity and Spectra? It looks like the Infinity comes with ballast included?

reefndude · Dec 22, 2017

Impressions after a month of use now is very good. Have temperature under control and am now running the halides 4 hours a day. Acros that have been in the tank pre halides have acclimated and are responding very well. Starting to pull some nice color and they are definitely growing.
Happy with the halides

P-Dub · Dec 22, 2017

reefndude said:
Impressions after a month of use now is very good. Have temperature under control and am now running the halides 4 hours a day. Acros that have been in the tank pre halides have acclimated and are responding very well. Starting to pull some nice color and they are definitely growing.
Happy with the halides

NICE! I had halides on my 125. Two 250w and one 400w in the center for years and the corals were always very happy and growing like mad. I lived in San Diego so only worried about the heat a few months out of the year. Had two High CFM fans blowing over the water all the time and just relied on the heater if they pulled down the temp too much. If I could, I would be running them on my tank as I set it up now. Alas, power costs in our area are unbelievable. There are just the wife and me and the power bill runs $400-$450/month with no tank. I'm stuck with LED's and envious of you. Can't wait to see some photos.

A. grandis · Dec 23, 2017

P-Dub said:
NICE! I had halides on my 125. Two 250w and one 400w in the center for years and the corals were always very happy and growing like mad. I lived in San Diego so only worried about the heat a few months out of the year. Had two High CFM fans blowing over the water all the time and just relied on the heater if they pulled down the temp too much. If I could, I would be running them on my tank as I set it up now. Alas, power costs in our area are unbelievable. There are just the wife and me and the power bill runs $400-$450/month with no tank. I'm stuck with LED's and envious of you. Can't wait to see some photos.

There are many people, including myself, that didn't see any differences between running LEDs or T5s in regards to paying more or less electricity. I still had to run the chiller too... I think with the halides it would be another story, but we still can cheat the electricity bill!! If you get a Spectra, for example, and run the halides 4 hours a day and after that you turn the T5s on for another 4 hours you will be saving electricity and keeping your tank in an amazing shape!!
Grandis.

A. grandis · Dec 23, 2017

reefndude said:
Impressions after a month of use now is very good. Have temperature under control and am now running the halides 4 hours a day. Acros that have been in the tank pre halides have acclimated and are responding very well. Starting to pull some nice color and they are definitely growing.
Happy with the halides

Wait a bit more and you'll see an explosion of growth. After a while, when the corals get stablished and as the system matures, they grow like fire!! I'm happy for you. Enjoy your tank. The corals are really happy, that's for sure!
Grandis.

reefndude · Dec 23, 2017

P-Dub said:
NICE! I had halides on my 125. Two 250w and one 400w in the center for years and the corals were always very happy and growing like mad. I lived in San Diego so only worried about the heat a few months out of the year. Had two High CFM fans blowing over the water all the time and just relied on the heater if they pulled down the temp too much. If I could, I would be running them on my tank as I set it up now. Alas, power costs in our area are unbelievable. There are just the wife and me and the power bill runs $400-$450/month with no tank. I'm stuck with LED's and envious of you. Can't wait to see some photos.

With the fans I am able to keep temp below 80. It has been dropping to 77 and toppi g out at 79.5. Hope it stays that way in the summer months. We will see. Fans kick on when tank reaches 79. Heater kicks on when tank drops to 77. Electric bill pretty much the same
Light schedule is...blue leds on at 9:30 am until 11:30. Two t5's, one coral plus one blue plus. On at 10:30 off at 10:30. Blue plus comes on ten minutes before and off 10 minutes after coral plus. Two 400 watt halides on at 1:00 off at 5. I will do at least one more hour and max out at 5 hours on total for the halides. Probably will run from 12:30 until 5:30