Amount of wattage?

Wilty · #1 08-20-2003, 07:29 PM

Since everyone has a different opinion, and we love to talk about lighting so much. What about lighting over a 130 Gal? Psssst not made of money lol.

I was planning (2) 250W MH with (4) 30w NO fluorences (cheap). But the more I read from everyone with successful tanks the more i think I may need more. That is 620w over a 130 gal. A 4.77 ration of Watts/Gal. Should I be thinking 400w???????? Should I also invest in sun glasses for my fish?

I want to get into clams and hard corals so .. I don't want to limit myself.

Once I'm further a long I will post construction pics of my tank. I'm built almost everything. I'm really pleased

Aquattro · #2 08-20-2003, 07:39 PM

How deep is the tank? If it's 24 inches, the 250w will be fine.

Wilty · #3 08-20-2003, 07:44 PM

oh gees sorry,

6'-0" lg x 18" wide x 24" high.

Just readin some people have smaller tanks with 400w MH . . . .

I got a price for a 1000w ballast I could do that. Apparently at 8'-0" away from the tank its equal to high noon in the tropics. lol haha

Do i need to worry about UV? time to look into UV filters?

Aquattro · #4 08-20-2003, 07:54 PM

The 250w will suit you fine. If you use mogul bulbs, you don't need to worry about UV. Double ended bulbs come ina pendant with UV filters.

Aquattro · #5 08-20-2003, 07:59 PM

Also, this is just basic advice. You need to determine what type/color bulb you want to use. A 250 Iwasaki is brighter than a 400w Radium. The options are endless, so you need to do some research on the selections available to you.

Wilty · #6 08-20-2003, 08:00 PM

This is all retro fit, I have built a capony using a single ended bulbs in mind. . . I may need to modify again . . .ugh I thought I was done the building stage lol
And since its all home built I won't have the UV filters.

Wilty · #7 08-20-2003, 08:12 PM

Oh gees, time to go searching through the threads lol Thought 250w was 250w and of course the different K rating.

StirCrazy · #8 08-20-2003, 10:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wilty

And since its all home built I won't have the UV filters.

don't need them with a single ended bulb.

Watts is a bad way to look at bulbs as there are several 250 watt bulbs out there that will put out more power than some 400 watt bulbs, and vise versa. you not only have to look at the bulb but also at the ballast that you are using with that bulb. there has been so much confusion in this area that many people are running good bulbs on ballast that were not designed for them so they are only realizing 50 to 80% of the full power the bulb was designed for. take the radium for example. on a normal north american 250 watt ballast it looked dim in my tank and barly put out more PAR than my old 175 watt 1000K bulb. but when hooked up to a 250 watt HQI ballast (replicates the power delivered by a european reactor ballast that we cannot use in North america) it was putting out only 5% less PAR than my AB bulb on the same ballast. so with the HQI ballast I got a increase of 170% in the amount of PAR delivered through 5" of air and 7" of water.

Steve

Wilty · #9 08-21-2003, 04:43 AM

GREAT!

Clearly been taking the whole MH thing for granted.

While on the topic has anyone used a light spectimeter (spelling?) to measure the range and parimeters of the lights in their whole system combined?
I was going to borrow one from a friend at work but his son has it. Apparently very expensive when they are more high-tech then the little things we used in high school lol.

StirCrazy · #10 08-21-2003, 05:14 AM

I only have a PAR sensor as I couldent afford the 13000.00 for a spectral analizer last year

Steve