New Mh

[Matthew5664]

Right I bought a MH unit today running a 250W BVL 12K bulb. Now should I place all livestock to the bottom of the tank and run the MH on the main cycle and bring the livestock up slowley or leave the livestock and start the MH off for 30mins (1.00 till 1.30) then in a cople of days for 1H so on and so on untill its on a main cycle???

 

[ostrow]

I've never heard of anyone moving the livestock around as you suggest. A lot depends on what you have in there. I'm guessing no SPS as you did not have halides. If it's mostly mushrooms, xenia and the like you need not be so conservative. If there are SPS then you do.

In any case you would have to slowly bring up the photoperiod. Assuming no SPS, I'd do an hour for a couple days, then 2, then at 4hrs hold for a week or so and watch the livestock. The bring up to 8 hrs over the next few days.

If there are SPS, then I'd do 2-3 days with each hour added, again holding at 4 for probably 2 weeks.

Some people place several layers of mesh across the tank to screen out the light, removing a layer daily. That is another path you could follow.

Could be more specific if we knew the livestock though.

 

[Matthew5664]

3x LPS

Bubble, Trumpet and Hammer

Zoos, polops, mushys and Xina

All under 165W of PC 50/50 at the mo. Just worried about 'burning' the LPS the bubble is ony 3" from the water line

Lights are 9" about the water.

 

[SkiFletch]

The "safest" way to do it would be to start with like 2 hours in the middle of your photoperiod and increase it an hour every 2-3 days. Something tells me you've got the patience to do it right Matt, as you allready have a great reef. I'm really interested to hear how things go as I'm considering purchasing a 175 for my reef on PCs too . Keep us posted, and take before-after pics

 

[Matthew5664]

For you Ski anything

Going to be 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) big bright in the front room. I'll have to get a picture from the street befor and after aswell should be cool.

i'll post some pics on my set-up thred next week.

Oh! check out my Phyto reactor

 

[SkiFletch]

I saw that, looks awesome. When I get my clam (after the halides), I'll be following the instructions . Too bad I have to figure out a way to eliminate my center brace to do it (gets out tig welder)

 

[Matthew5664]

KGZZZZZZZZZ KGZZZZZZZZZZZZ

don't you love this hobby!!!!

 

[ostrow]

Yeah, I might move that bubble down a bit and then do an hour a day.

Do the hold at 4hrs for a week and see how things do, then ramp it up an hour a day again.

You have to do that when you change bulb types too ... cut light to 4hrs a day and bring up slowly.

Don't get cheapo Chinese bulbs. Bulbs are everything. Get good ones! And make sure they are compatible with your ballasts.

 

[AmazonFish222]

???

 

[Matthew5664]

and what in your mind is a good bulb?

 

[SkiFletch]

As I'm "in the market" so to speak I've heard that XM, and Coralvue make great bulbs. If I were getting one, I'd get this XM:

Or this coralvue

 

[crazyelece]

if you want a good bulb get a good brand name. As far as color temp that is all personal preference and your ballast has to be factored into the equation as well to get the true performance data.

 

[SkiFletch]

Oh yeah, and forgot to mention, I'd get a quality electronic ballast for two reasons. First, it saves on both electrical power and heat, but most importantly is that electronic ballasts tend to be able to power MOST bulbs. Or at least those bulbs which are worthy of buying . Not sure what's avialable across the pond, but if I had my pick, I'd grab an XM 20k bulb, and an Icecap electronic ballast

 

[ostrow]

250 watts is 250 watts. I doubt you'll save much on the electronic ballasts. Moreover, if you are running SPS, you will be underpowering your bulbs, something to consider.

Then again, they will fire any bulbs.

I just upgraded to M80 ballasts, the magnetic ballasts that can fire double-ended bulbs. I am running single ended bulbs on them. I can't begin to explain how much better the tank looks, colors are exploding out of the corals. Will have to replace the bulbs a few months sooner than otherwise, but well worth it in my opinion.

As for bulbs, a lot is based on preference. For a yellower look with fast growth, Iwakis are great. For a white look with great coloration, the Reeflux are the best value. I run the Reeflux (by Coralvue, don't get the regular Coralvue bulbs as they have terrible PAR ratings), and love them.

You can drive yourself crazy comparing bulbs and ballasts. If you want to spend a lot of time doing research before experimenting, and have a nice, stable pretty look that will give good growth and color, start the safe way with a Ushio or, if in the UK, BLV (they are the same, both German made) 10K bulb. Then look at other peoples' tanks and get a sense for what bulb you really want. For 2.5 years I used Ushios before finally switching to the Reeflux.

 

[crazyelece]

250 W isn't 250 W. That is the wattage of the bulb, not the wattage of power used by the ballast. electronic ballasts are more efficient than magnetics and thus consume less wattage. The key to understanding this is the bulbs use the same amount of power but the magnetic ballast uses more power to run that bulb than the electronic. This extra power is usually consumed and seen as heat generated by the ballast.