got ethical husbandry?

Over kill?

Flightdeck

Flightdeck

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I was thinking of changing from current light set up 250 watt se radium with lumenarc and electronisc ballest. To a 400 watt 14k hamilton se with the same reflector but magnetic ballest m58. I am not sure if this would be over kill or not. I think the 250 seems rather dull or maybe just used to my old tank burning my eyeballs out of my sockets, with the 400 watt bulbs not sure? . The radium bulb definetly makes the corals glow but does not have that bright glow? I am also using 2 65 watt true atinic bulbs (pc) for sup. Maybe if the 400 watt set up I have is to much I could get a different K bulb for the 250 watt set up allthough I was hoping to use the stuff I allready have to save a couple of $. I have heard mixed opinions allready some say go for the gusto and put the 400 watter on there others say stick with the 250's because 400's will burn anything that was near the top. Right now all my corals are not close to the surface so they have room to grow into the tank. The tank is 30x30x24 any suggestions is greatly appreciated thanks. Oh yeah my tank is mostly SPS.
 
I think 400 are probably major overkill too. Ever thought about DE 250's? I have 3 of the phoenix 14k's over my 210g and it's plenty bright enough!
 
First how old are the bulbs? Older bulbs definitely lose brightness overtime, especially 20000k bulbs. Not to mention bluer bulbs look dimmer to us anyways as humans since it's at the far end of our spectrum as to what are eyes are tuned too.

Although with a single bulb over a 30x30 tank I don't think anyone would fault you for going to 400watts, in fact that might be the sane thing to do. But if you do I don't know if I'd go for a m58 ballast, electronic or "HQI" magnetic ballast, with the later putting the brighter light at the expense of shortened bulb life though.

End result though is look at your corals, are they growing good? Are you happy with their growth? Then stick with what you have, change the bulb out if it's old, maybe go to something a little less blue. If I had room for actinic lighting with my homemade lumenarcs I would definitely go with 10000k bulbs and actinic light so it doesn't look too yellow.
 
The bulb is under 4 months old at 6 hours per day useage.
Have you had to clean the cube yet Flightdeck?
I think you could go w/ a single 400 for SPS on that tank and I probably would. Otherwise you won't get good SPS growth in the lower 1/3rd of the tank. IMHO.-Jim
 
400w will let you get decent coverage to the edges of the 30x30.

I'm finally getting good sps color with a 250w Radium 20k going through only an inch of water.

I could see going to 400w to color up stuff deeper in your tank.
 
Hey all thanks for the input keep it comming. Jim Funny you mentioned the cleaning. I just finished cleaning the tank for the second time, with the rock and coral in it. So far not to bad I cut the back of the canopy the same shape as the reflector so I can slide the reflector out with ease from the back.Tank sits far from the wall in a corner of the room Then slide the canopy off from the front and dive in for the cleaning. the light hangs from 2 cables attached to the ceiling while the canopy is off. It actually looks pretty good even with the canopy off and the light just hanging there. Have not had to endure the tuff scraping of coraline yet though, I am sure it will be a chore though ounce it starts building up on the glass.
 
Capescuba I have a 250watt hqi 14k on my 55 hex and do like it very much. I tried it with the cube and it did not have the light spread i needed for the the size of the cube. So I would have to buy a new reflector, mine is a pendent style.
 
low output as far as PAR, he even went on to say that if you really want that spike of blue at ~450nm, you might as well choose a 20k bulb... I wanted to make a stink about that, but decided against it, because there's no way in hell a 20k bulb looks anything like a reeflux 12k.

Here's the piece http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2007/3/review
 
I have heard that as well.

Basically, the par numbers suck.

Do I care? No, not in the least bit. :D

If the light kept the ultra blue, before it burns in whitish I would be very happy.

I'm going back to Radiums when I'm done with Reeflux - why? because I like the blue better.
 
See I'm just the opposite, I love white and usually that's done with a hint of blue. Unfortunately finding a white bulb that stays white is hard, most 10000k bulbs might initially fire white but go to a yellowish white soon there after. The reeflux 12ks are quite white with a subtle hint of blue, in fact they seem to get more blue as they get older, 20k bulbs... way to blue for my tastes even if they do tend to make a lot of the colors fluoresce.
 
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