Who is running halides on their monster tank?

pdxmonkeyboy · Oct 22, 2019

Picked up the last parts of my lighting system today. Thanks to the crash of another market I got these for a song.
$260 for everything.

Shown on a 8x4 ply sheet which is my footprint

bdesign · Jan 28, 2020

pdxmonkeyboy said:
Picked up the last parts of my lighting system today. Thanks to the crash of another market I got these for a song.
$260 for everything.

Shown on a 8x4 ply sheet which is my footprint

How are the lights working out?

pdxmonkeyboy · Jan 28, 2020

The lights are sitting in the workshop. I did build a frame to hang them from. The new 600g tank process is:
Sell my house, move into the house I have a contingent offer on, tear out wall, install tank, hang lights.

That said, I did use halides on my 300g tank. halides and t5. I thought about LEDs but honestly, after stepping back and looking at the situation, I kind of think lighting a big tank with LED is ridiculous. The spread just isn't there and every large SPS tank with LEDs that I see ends up using more wattage than if they just used halides.

Anyways.. I'm hugely excited about this build but it is all waiting on selling my house. Anyone interested in a 3,800 sq.ft. house in the hills of Portland, OR?

pdxmonkeyboy · Jan 28, 2020

Some things are best explained in a meme... LOL

bdesign · Jan 28, 2020

pdxmonkeyboy said:
I did use halides on my 300g tank. halides and t5.

Cool. Did you like that set-up?
That's what I'm considering, but will the T5 units add that much to make it worth having them? What bulbs did you have in the T5s? Actinic?

If I do switch to halides, I will definitely miss the ramping of the LEDs; I REALLY like the low light of early/late times.

(I thought about keeping the LEDs WITH the halides ONLY for that early/late ramp look)

atomic081 · Jan 28, 2020

pdxmonkeyboy said:
The lights are sitting in the workshop. I did build a frame to hang them from. The new 600g tank process is:
Sell my house, move into the house I have a contingent offer on, tear out wall, install tank, hang lights.

That said, I did use halides on my 300g tank. halides and t5. I thought about LEDs but honestly, after stepping back and looking at the situation, I kind of think lighting a big tank with LED is ridiculous. The spread just isn't there and every large SPS tank with LEDs that I see ends up using more wattage than if they just used halides.

Anyways.. I'm hugely excited about this build but it is all waiting on selling my house. Anyone interested in a 3,800 sq.ft. house in the hills of Portland, OR?

Im not sure if this can be said any better about LEDs vs Halides on a monster tank. I have 4 400w on my 800g and love them. The one recommendation i have is to put LED actinics with the Halides. I tried VHOs and even played with T5s and i couldnt tell they were on with Radium 400s. I opted for the reefbrite XHO and im very happy.

Also https://eztube.com for your Rack.....easy and looks awsome. Wood will warp with moisture and heat!!

pdxmonkeyboy · Jan 28, 2020

bdesign said:
Cool. Did you like that set-up?
That's what I'm considering, but will the T5 units add that much to make it worth having them? What bulbs did you have in the T5s? Actinic?

If I do switch to halides, I will definitely miss the ramping of the LEDs; I REALLY like the low light of early/late times.

(I thought about keeping the LEDs WITH the halides ONLY for that early/late ramp look)

I had a 6' geiseman spectra... and I may sell it if your interested.
It had 3x 250 20k radiums, 4 blue plus T5ho, and 2x reef brite blue strips.

So over the course of the day the reefbrites came on, then the t5, then the halides. It reversed in the evening so there was plenty of ramping and the tank with just the reefbrites has a CRAZY amount of pop.