input on lighting output

[melinda & adam]

hey everyone .. looking to make a lighting purchase for my 150 high.. After extensive reading of posts and tanks of the months and reading tons of articles it looks like I am leaning towards the luminarc 3 mini stealth .. being as my tank is only 18 inches wide .. looking at the reeflux mh 12 k 250 ... and the ice cap ballasts. The input that I would really appreciate is ..

 

1. Are the DE bulbs the way to go .. or are there drawbacks

2. Should I go magnetic ballast or are the electronic the way to go ?

3. When I put these luminarc reflectors above my tank there will be no room for t5 bulbs for the actinic . Will the 12k bulbs give off enough blue. If anyone has any other combinations that would work better I am all eyes.

 

Also where is the best place to order my lighting from... Sorry for the long post but if I wrote down all o fthe possible scenarios I have going through my head it would be a good 2 hours of reading for everyone.

 

Adam

[Wasga]

This should be in the general discussion forum. Isnt the 150 high 36" high? If so, I would recommend 400w MH. Definatly go for electronic balast.

[melinda & adam]

U are correct. Sorry about that did not look at which section we were putting this in. Maybe one of the moderators cold move this post for us. Sorry about that.

 

Melinda

[bk_market]

I have 250W DE Phoenix 14000K that one alone is nice color with enough blue and decent grow

[Brian Ward]

DE isn't bad, and the luminarc pendants/reflectors come with the UV glass that you need. It only takes a 250W bulb, and you probably want to consider a 400W as Wasga said. If you only want to keep SPS high in the tank, or no SPS, you'll probably be fine with the 250W. For flexibility, I would recommend going with the Luminarc III Mini Stealth SE (should be available again in a month or so) or go with the Lumenarc A3 Mini Stealth:

http://www.aquariumspecialty.com/catalog/p...12ab15ef02824e8

 

That fixtue will work with bulbs up to 400W, so if you went 250 for now, you could upgrade with only changing out the bulb and ballast.

 

For color, as everyone recommended to me, try to look at as many different bulb types as you can and figure out which color you like best. Your other option is to go for one of the pendants that has PC bulbs built-in and run actinics as your PCs. A third option - not the best as far as reflecting light into the aquarium, but a great budget solution is the lighting setup I just purchased from BeltwayBandit - it is a single 48"x9" reflector with 2 VHO bulbs on the outside edge, and 2 mogul-base SE MH sockets wired to the middle. If you're interested in this one, I can send you some pics or you can come by and look. I may even be interested in selling off that part of the setup since I have an identical 4-VHO setup I'm not using and I don't need the MH. Not sure on selling it yet, but if you're interested I'll definitely think about it. You can also go with the large pendants that have everything integrated:

 

http://www.aquariumspecialty.com/catalog/p...9df86b1e129828c

 

~Brian

[madmax7774]

I also have a "high tank", and I strongly recommend you consider the ramifications of your lighting choice with regards to heat, BEFORE you buy anything. I have the 110G tall tank and I have dual 250W xm 10K bulbs. heat was a problem for me. I ended up getting a chiller. you go with 400W lights, and you are assured to need a chiller ($800 investment) I don't know the exact dimensions of your tank, bur mine is the AGA 110G tall, (31" tall) the dual 250W lights are almost overkill. I really think 250W lights are plenty for a 36" tall tank. If you guys want to check out my setup, and talk about lighting, you are more than welcome to stop over. (We have actually met twice before at BRK)

John