Lighting question for my 265

[toddhgr]

I've been bit by the reef bug big time! I got my first reef tank in December. A jbj picotope. I loved it, but it wasn't big enough. So I set up a 65 in May and moved everything over that. Now I'm prepping to convert my 265 tanganyikan setup to a reef. As with everything I do, I try to go overkill but on a really tight budget. I'm always looking for deals on equipment as well as equipment that is efficient to run. I'm thinking that I'd really like to go led on the 265 and was looking at grabbing this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/171410460889?redirect=mobile This is at the top end of my budget as far as lighting goes. Opinions? Should I supplement with t5? If so, which bulbs should I use?

 

[ro_nicu]

I looked at them as well but could not figure out if they use a heatsink behind the PCB or not, without a heatsink they are basically throw away lights. seeing that they employ zenners next to the LEDs I tend to believe that there's no heatsink.

 

[toddhgr]

Ohhh that sux. Anybody on here use these or know for a fact if they have heatsinks?

 

[toddhgr]

Anybody else? After following g the thread about switching back to t5s I'm considering just finding a used 72" fixture. The only thing about that is bulb cost and constant replacement.

 

[reefstarter]

For a tank that size you will need a ton of light for sure t5s are great personally I would go with at least an 8 x 39 fixture or halides unless you spend huge $$$$ on a good led like an ati hybrid or ai or PAC sun

 

[frank180reef]

I think I would go with old school halides

 

[toddhgr]

Halides scare me because of the heat and power consumption. Roughly, how much would it cost me per month to run halides? And what would I want for wattage?

 

[this is me]

Todd,
What's the dimension of the tank?
http://reefcentral.com/index.php/tank-electrical
For my 63x32x24, it was around 15$ more to run halide. This does not account for the cost in heating the tank if I were to go LEDs. My heater is constantly on when the halide is not on. For this reason, I dropped the tank temp to 77degrees. The halides bring that temp up to 79 on a really hot day. In the winter, i probably need to run the heater with the halide.
I open my windows and don't run any AC(unless it's 76 or higher inside the house) so the room swing from 60 at night to 76. But it has been a quite cool summer.

 

[toddhgr]

It's 84x24x30. Another thing that bothers me about the heat is the possibility of melting my braces. And also the shadows that the braces create. Should I run a 250x3 halide setup for sps? Also which bulbs are best for growth as well as a semi blue color?

 

[this is me]

You're not going to place te fixture so that the halides are directly on top of the braces. It will not melt anything or make the braces cast shadows on the tank if you place them between the braces. It has been done many times.
SE bulbs=Radiums 20K(magnetic drives preferred)
DE=Pheonix
I would do some research on large tank over RC and see what people are running.

Also, on such a big tank, the halides are not going to heat up the water as much as you think. I ran 250W w/96W T5s on my system 70(55gallons). When I upgrade to 200gallons, I'm using 500W w/160W T5. The water volume is roughly ~4x more but the amount of wattage increase is only a little more than double.
It takes a lot more heat to heat up a large volume of water.
Energy saving? Like I said before, your halide won't increase much. They're only running 6-8hrs a day. Look into stuff that runs 24/7 like your return pump. That's where the cost saving is.

 

[toddhgr]

Thanks for the info. It's really appreciated. I'll hop over to rc and check some more stuff out.

 

[dz6t]

Ohhh that sux. Anybody on here use these or know for a fact if they have heatsinks?

Yes they do, also runs cool. But I will go with halide for such a big tank. Also try single ended bulbs with large reflectors.

 

[toddhgr]

How are the Aquatic Life setups?

 

[P-Nut]

Nothing grows coral like Halides. I have a tank with T5 and a tank with Halides next to it. Whenever I move a coral to the halides tank, it is like it got injected with steroids.

My T5 tank is turning into a Halide tank.

 

[mbian112283]

Ebay has some deals for mh and t5 combo. Right around 500.

 

[toddhgr]

I've been looking at those. Would 250w be ok or would i have much better results with 400w?

 

[this is me]

I would get SE and selectable ballast. You just change the bulbs to 400w if 250W is not enough. Another downside of DE fixture is that it's a PITA to remove and place the mount unless it's an Elos fixture.
You will break many DE bulbs before getting it right.