Our 360
Bryan,
Boosting the photoperiod near the end of the bulbs life sounds like an interesting way (as long as you don't mind the hydro, I run 5 of them so I cannot do this as there are heating issues LOL!) to lengthen the life of the bulb. I would try it, as the extension in photoperiod may make up for the reduction in blue spectrum (it'll still be there, just not as much) in the later months.
With our set-up the bulbs are staggered in odd-numbers (5 R, 3 I) which I think makes the display look nice. In fact, the iwasakis do not detract at all from the radiums. If I had a whack load of $$ to spend on hydro I would run all the bulbs LOL! However, I am not sure this would be the case with 400W iwasakis as the yellow may be a bit much and the differences may be noticeable, i haven't seen this set-up so I am not entirely sure. A friend of mine will be doing a 400w Iwasaki coupled with 4 radiums on his new cube, so I am interested to see that :)I guess the key to making both Kelvins looks OK is to either use a dual reflector or mount the bulbs as close as possible while still maintaining adequate spread. I must admit though, when you run just the radiums the colors are more vibrant as the iwasaki washes them out ever so slightly.
I do not run VHO's. Thats how I rationalized this bulb switch to my husband ;) If I were to run 1600 watts of iwasaki I would need at least 800watts of VHO actinic to get the tank looking how I like (I favor a more white-blue appearance that may not appeal to all) so that would be 2400watts (and those VHO's need to be changed even more often than radiums). I run at peak times (only an hour) 2750 watts and the rest of the time either 1200 or 2000 which works out to be less anyhow and I get point-source lighting.
So thats why we chose this lighting. I guess all lighting decisions have their pros and cons though. It just depends on what you as an individual like [img]smile.gif[/img]
[ 10 August 2002, 08:32: Message edited by: jb1974 ]
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