Lighting decision(argue away)

J

JeremyGlen

I am going to be buying the lighting for my new tank soon and would like some input from the community as to what everyone thinks.

First off, my tank is a 24g(24x14x17). I am wiring 2 28w actinic pcs for dawn/dusk and coralline growth. I will be running 2 250w DE MHs. So 556w over the 24g, is that enough? :lol:

I enjoy the color of the AqualineBuschke 20K bulbs. I have been very interested in the new(3-4month old) XM 15K bulbs. I know I don't want anything less than the 14.5K radiums. What do you guys think?
 
I agree it's to much but if you like 20ks then it should be fine due to the lowered PAR. I would switch to one with a 14 or 15k as Matt suggested but there is nothing wrong with your plan.

What are your plans for the heat those will generate?
 
Right now I have a single 250w hanging over a 29g tank and id doesn't disperse the light well enough IMO. This tank is going to be 2" wider and about the same depth. I had thought about 2 150w bulbs but figured with the reduction in PAR from my UV "shield" it wouldn't be enough light.

I can definitly tell the difference in light from the 20K to the 14K. The 150w 14K I have right now is 3 or 4 times brighter than my 250w 20K.

I want to be able to have sps all over the tank not just mostly in the middle under the mh.

I have never figured out how much light is too much. Is 20 wpg too much?

Now that I'm typing it, it does kinda sound like a whole lot of light. What about 2 150w bulbs? Sound a little better?
 
This is all going into a canopy so I'm still trying to figure out what I am going to do for a reflector.

As for the heat issue, it is not that big of a problem right now as it is colder, by summer, I hope to have saved enough money to get a chiller.

I am going to have fans in the canopy connected to a temp probe and possibly a fan setup like Marc shows on his website that he built over the sump.

If I am correct in my logic, the more UV that gets to the tank, the more heat that is transferred? I am going to be using a sheet of UF-3 or OP-3 UV protected acrylic as a shield for the bulbs. It transmits around 86% of PAR and <1% UV-a and 0% UV-b. So the heat will mostly be in the canopy, which will be evacuated by the fans.
 
Trust me, 2x250W is way overkill on a tank that small. I ran a DE 250W 14,500K Giesemann in a ROIII over my 20L and was pretty happy with the spread, but not the color.

I have since switched to a 250W SE Coralvue 10,000K Reeflux in a Lumenarc III Mini and am supremely pleased.

If I were you, I'd get a ROIII reflector with a DE Reeflux 10,000K bulb (www.acropora.net has them). If you'd like to come by and check out the Reeflux you're welcome to. It's got better color than the 14K I was using and looks better than the 20K I had on my old tank. And the colors of my SPS......

Seriously, you're overdoing it. IMO 2 250s and a chiller on a 24g is a waste of money all round. If you're just dying to have a whole mess of watts up there go for a 400W in a good reflector.

/rant
Also, WPG is a terrible way to measure lighting. It fails to take light penetration or tank depth into account. I wish people would stop using WPG.
/rant
 
Also, small pieces of low-iron glass will probably work better as UV shields I would think. Pricier but they will last longer.
 
Ok. Now that you have enlightened me, I have been doing some more research. I now am faced with the decision whether to install a SE or DE bulb.

There are articles on AdvancedAquarist.com showing DE and SE spectral irradience and the SE bulbs seem to be much higher. But, I have also been under the impression that the DE bulbs are brighter and have a higher PAR than SE bulbs, i.e the 150w DE is comparable or brighter than the 175w SE.

What to do?
 
This is from an article on his website about the different reflectors and such.

"An interesting comparison is the one between 250W DE systems and the 400W lamps reflector systems. Since both used 10000K lamps (although from different manufactures, and of different styles), we could try to determine whether we can replace 400W systems with 250W DE lighting system. This would be economically quite beneficial to the aquarist, in terms of savings in power and minimizing heat additions to the tank. Interestingly when comparing the total incident light over the 3X3, 2X2 and 1X1 areas there is only a slight decrease in total incident light, while the lamp power is decreased by 37%."

The article is in the reflectors section here:

http://www.reeflightinginfo.arvixe.com/articles.htm
 
I will be running 2 250w DE MHs. So 556w over the 24g said:
You are going to have an evaporation problem... It will most likely evaporate 2 gallons a day and will be tough to keep up with on a 24g.
Click to expand...
 
I think I have decided to go ahead and put one 250w 10000K Reeflux DE in a Reef Optix III reflector with 2 55w actinic 03 PC bulbs. If I end up needing more light, I can always add more. Thanks for the input as always.
 
I tend to agree, the Dual 250's over a 24" tank would be severe overkill
you're next step up from that would be Carbon Arc lamps. you might be better off finishing the research on lighting and finding out what you want in the tank and what the lighting needs are for each
 
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