Aquarium Lighting - MH

the problem i face i have no top cover on the tank just this complete (chinese) unit that i purchased which has this fitting/ lights to add more will be difficult notice the unit i speak about
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i would start off with some mushrooms, a cabbage leather, zoas and paly's, xenia for softies and then for LPS a frogspawn and torch coral
 
dallasg said:
if he adds 3-4 more t5 its more than enuff, with 5 t5's and 2 mh 150w will do great i know tanks with less and they have great colour and growth
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hmm i dont agree at all that sounds like you guessing big time lol:p

anyway ashwin to answer your question your tank is around 756liters and relatively deep so heres a breakdown for using some proper calculations:


A light demanding tank of this size would use no less than 68000 lumens to keep even sps happy at all depths.

Now you want easy to keep corals then we suggest softies and lps but still you should have atleast over 38000lumens or your corals WILL NOT DO TOO WELL.so the choice is yours but i recommend nothing less than 38000lumens.


Right now you have

2x 150w mh( the globes are 20000k which looks nice but not alot of lumens for corals) so thats around 18000lumens output together.

2 x 54w t5 should give of around 9500lumens

your current total is 27500lumens.

now i see your problem as far as the space is concerned so here what i suggest....


change your mh globes to 10000k(10000k gives of way more lumens than 20000k) this will give you atleast 30000lumens from your 2x150w mh set-up.
then leave your t5's as is and add another 4x 54w t5's (cable tie it or stick it on lol your choice do some diy)


you can use 20000k and actinic tubes in the new 4x54w t5's so that you get a blueish look instead of the 10000k yellowish.these should add another 14000lumens

so your total would be around 53500lumens and any coral will be just fine.

Remember though that as long as your tank has less than 68000lumens then i suggest you place light loving corals higher up on your rocks lps etc. and only place softies and mushrooms and stuff that dont need much light like sun corals on the substrate.

so dallas is right after all but he forgot to take the fact that you have 20000k mh globes into account:p these make a huge diff when it comes to light output as they only give of around 60 lumens per watt(or less!) compared to the 10000k's 100lumens per watt(or even more with some globes!)
 
im sure its possible dallas but hey it sure aint gonna do his corals any favors by depriving them of light considering that even if he had to put 200 000 lumens of light in his tank its still several times less light than the corals receive on the reef where they came from so why should we not allow them to thrive with ample light in captivity?
 
hi

thanks for the info i was always under the impression the higher the kelvin the better the lightening. will try and make changes, will the poor lightening i currently be responsible for the brown "crap" on glass that has to be scraped off every third day?
 
i have recently added some rock with corraline algae and found that it has not yet spread even after adding "purple up" to accelerate its growth , Is the light the possible cause.
 
Ashwin said:
hi

thanks for the info i was always under the impression the higher the kelvin the better the lightening. will try and make changes, will the poor lightening i currently be responsible for the brown "crap" on glass that has to be scraped off every third day?
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the kelvin rating is simply the colour,plain and simple:)

as for the algae(that brown crap you speak of) lol well its going to come no matter what,but you can reduce it significantly so that you only scrape it off once in two weeks.to do this you need to reduce your nutrients ie PHOSPHATES,NITRATES AND SILICATES. silicates are not such a problem really but the first two are major causes of algae growth.

algae does thrive on light but so do you corals so we remedy this by depriving the algae of its nitrate and phosphate food.

Ashwin said:
i have recently added some rock with corraline algae and found that it has not yet spread even after adding "purple up" to accelerate its growth , Is the light the possible cause.
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well not really most types of corraline algae dont need extreme light infact alot thrive in lower light so im not sure whats inhibiting your corraline growth....corraline uses alot of calcuim,magnesuim and strontonium so i would check these first.

ashwin how many corals do you currently have?
 
davidfr7 said:
Got off the phone with the glass guys. Normal and toughened glass will not reflect uv rays. Shatter proof will but with the heat it will not last. a tinted glass will work but it will effect the light you want.

sorry
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I politely disagree. A call to the glass guy enquiring into which UV he is referring to that will not be filtered with toughened glass or any silicate glass might confirm that he has little knowledge of UV. You might also want to ask him if the glass thickness plays a part.

Just for those that do not know there are, for simplicity, and i explain in simple terms, three UV types of radiation. UV-A, UV-B and UV-C.

UV-A This form of radiation is the ultraviolet range and is extremely important to our hobby. It passes through normal silica glass.

UV-B A small section of the spectrum but the most damaging. This is the radiation that causes sunburn and damage to life/corals. It does not pass through normal silica glass and is absorbent in water.

UV-C Now most Aquarium globes do not use or have UV-c. It is the far from the visible light. It is very harmful live tissue. Fish pond and other UV sterilizer globes are made to produce this range of UV. Never use one of these globes over an aquarium. Most Halide globes emit a small portion of UV-C. This is normally taken care of in the globes envelope.

Now normal heat treated silica glass will refract UV due to its lack of purity, depending on the thickness of the glass.

Corals develop defence mechanisms known as Zooxanthellae to combat these Forms of UV.

This is a very complicated and in depth subject with many different views and will take up many hours of debate.

You can trust a normal heat treated silica glass lens. As long as you place the light fixture more than 300mm from the water surface. This will afford the corals an opportunity to develop their defence mechanisms.

Hope this info enlightens, and also educates the glass guy.
 
Nemos Janitor said:
I politely disagree. A call to the glass guy enquiring into which UV he is referring to that will not be filtered with toughened glass or any silicate glass might confirm that he has little knowledge of UV. You might also want to ask him if the glass thickness plays a part.

Just for those that do not know there are, for simplicity, and i explain in simple terms, three UV types of radiation. UV-A, UV-B and UV-C.

UV-A This form of radiation is the ultraviolet range and is extremely important to our hobby. It passes through normal silica glass.

UV-B A small section of the spectrum but the most damaging. This is the radiation that causes sunburn and damage to life/corals. It does not pass through normal silica glass and is absorbent in water.

UV-C Now most Aquarium globes do not use or have UV-c. It is the far from the visible light. It is very harmful live tissue. Fish pond and other UV sterilizer globes are made to produce this range of UV. Never use one of these globes over an aquarium. Most Halide globes emit a small portion of UV-C. This is normally taken care of in the globes envelope.

Now normal heat treated silica glass will refract UV due to its lack of purity, depending on the thickness of the glass.

Corals develop defence mechanisms known as Zooxanthellae to combat these Forms of UV.

This is a very complicated and in depth subject with many different views and will take up many hours of debate.

You can trust a normal heat treated silica glass lens. As long as you place the light fixture more than 300mm from the water surface. This will afford the corals an opportunity to develop their defence mechanisms.

Hope this info enlightens, and also educates the glass guy.
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Useful Info NJ, I'm busy on my DIY MH and wanted this exact info on the Screen Glass/Glass Shield over the Halides. Is there a formula to calculate what thickness tempered glass needs to be used over which wattage bulb?
 
@Pads, I have not researched that deep. But most of the high end aquarium light fitting manufactures use 4mm for 150w and 5mm for 250 & 400w globes.

The important thing to remember is when ever a Halide is installed over a tank always start off with a height in excess of 300mm above water level. This allows the corals to adapt to the UV better. You can then slowly lower the halide to as much as 100mm if you want better color and growth. But start off at min 300mm.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ashwin View attachment 101229
hi

thanks for the info i was always under the impression the higher the kelvin the better the lightening. will try and make changes, will the poor lightening i currently be responsible for the brown "crap" on glass that has to be scraped off every third day?

the kelvin rating is simply the colour,plain and simple:)

as for the algae(that brown crap you speak of) lol well its going to come no matter what,but you can reduce it significantly so that you only scrape it off once in two weeks.to do this you need to reduce your nutrients ie PHOSPHATES,NITRATES AND SILICATES. silicates are not such a problem really but the first two are major causes of algae growth.

algae does thrive on light but so do you corals so we remedy this by depriving the algae of its nitrate and phosphate food.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ashwin View attachment 101230
i have recently added some rock with corraline algae and found that it has not yet spread even after adding "purple up" to accelerate its growth , Is the light the possible cause.

well not really most types of corraline algae dont need extreme light infact alot thrive in lower light so im not sure whats inhibiting your corraline growth....corraline uses alot of calcuim,magnesuim and strontonium so i would check these first.

ashwin how many corals do you currently have? NONE AS YET WAITING TO TANK IN ORDER. NITRATE IS NOW ZERO BUT PHOSPHATE STILL HOVERING BETWEEN 0.5 AND 1 ADDED ROWAPHOS AND UPGRADED SKIMMER HOPEFULL TO SEE RESULTS SOONS
 
hi guys,

i was scratching around the store room at the office and found a gear box for a mh light - 150w. i would like to use this on my tl-550 nano.

1) how far away from the surface of the water does the mh light need to be?
2) is 150w good enough for a tl-550?
3) would a 14k globe be sufficient?
4) best place to get the light fitting and globe?
 
johanpm said:
hi guys,

i was scratching around the store room at the office and found a gear box for a mh light - 150w. i would like to use this on my tl-550 nano.

1) how far away from the surface of the water does the mh light need to be?
2) is 150w good enough for a tl-550?
3) would a 14k globe be sufficient?
4) best place to get the light fitting and globe?
Click to expand...

1-i have mine at 10cm(15cm from the globe though) but i'm sure closer will be fine as long as water cant splash directly on the globe(have a glass cover) and as long as the light gets dispersed properly ie reaches all parts of the tank directly where you want to place corals the its fine.

2-yeah 150w is more than enough for your size tank:)

3-yeah 10000k would give more growth but be too yellow so 14000k or even 20000k would be fine.

4.no idea where in jhb....i only know of places in the vaal.i'm sure one of the jhb members can help out here.
 
johanpm said:
hi guys,

i was scratching around the store room at the office and found a gear box for a mh light - 150w. i would like to use this on my tl-550 nano.

1) how far away from the surface of the water does the mh light need to be?
I have mine about 4cm away , as Falcon said - make sure there is no splashing (even on the glass cover, it WILL break)
2) is 150w good enough for a tl-550?
More than enough
3) would a 14k globe be sufficient?
Colour is all down to personal choice,I currently run 10K, but when i replace my bulbs - i will be going with 14K
4) best place to get the light fitting and globe?
All depends on what type fitting you are looking for.
The DIY ones that you get from normal lighting shops or the more expensive aquarium specific ones? for the DIY one , contact radiant lighting. They should be able to sell you the housing only, minus the starter.

As for globes - Try the sponsor forums
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Answers in red
 
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