Lightrails - next big thing in reef lighting?

[littlesilvermax]

Originally Posted by fkshiu

Cool vids.

How much clearance do you need above the tank?

I have 2 feet total above my tank and it works OK, I would prefer more. The extra aluminum bar that holds the three halides takes about a few inches too, so it depends if you mont one halide to the mover or mount a few like I did.

[mark]

Not that I would do it but wondering something...

I have a tank that is ~6' long with 2-250W pendents with T5 on both sides. Would I be able to replace with one 250W on a light rail going end to end? I see the gain in dropping one pendant and ballast (save on energy and less heat) but there's obviously a drop in the overall light the tank would receive. See increasing photoperiod, going to 400W etc, but wondering how this would be correctly adjusted from the fairly typical setup (bulb for every 2-3' and 8-9 hour photoperiod)?

[littlesilvermax]

My tank is over 7 feet and I use 3 250 watt halides with the lgiht rail.

I don't think a 6 footer would work with 1 halide. It is not like the sun, where it changes angle but is always shining on the reef through-out the day.

[mark]

Originally Posted by littlesilvermax

I don't think a 6 footer would work with 1 halide. It is not like the sun, where it changes angle but is always shining on the reef through-out the day.

Why not though, there must some measurement like lux or PAR/meter²/hour from a reef to match.

[digital-audiophile]

Wouldn't you have major shaded areas with just one halide on a rail over 6ft?

[littlesilvermax]

Let's take a reef at 9am and then again at 3 pm in Fiji for instance.

At 9 am the sun is at a 45 degree angle and then it is right overhead at noon and then again at a 45 degree angle at 3 pm. The sun would be directly hitting the reef for the whole 6 hour period (sure a cloud might block the sun for a while, but there would still be a high par value even then) just at diferent angles.

With a 6 foot tank (halide between 6 to 10 inches from water) and one 250 halide there would be a couple of options:

1) most popular because all of the light rails I have seen move back and forth with only up to a min delay in between moves. the corals (as individuals, not as a group) would see light then very minimal light then light.......

2) get a light rail that moves the light across once in a day. the corals will only get a couple hours of intense light per day.

Make sense now?

[mark]

If running a single small pendant would be thinking something that continually goes back and forth.

We are already playing games with algae lighting (24/7) and corals having spot lighting, instant off and on with timers, overall durations different than the reef, some people running 250W bulb and others 400w or T5s or different spectrum on the same species. Just wondering lightwise, how much we can fool the coral so they believe there under the surf in Fiji.

Also at what point would this be annoying to the viewer.

[Whatigot]

[quote=With a 6 foot tank (halide between 6 to 10 inches from water) and one 250 halide there would be a couple of options:

1) most popular because all of the light rails I have seen move back and forth with only up to a min delay in between moves. the corals (as individuals, not as a group) would see light then very minimal light then light.......

2) get a light rail that moves the light across once in a day. the corals will only get a couple hours of intense light per day.

Make sense now?[/QUOTE]

Why not a little bit of column a and a little bit of column b?
one travelling end to end in up to a minute running simultaneously with one that travels across once in a day?

just curious, not very lighting savvy...