Is this light adequate?

I'm considering buying the Coralife HO fluorescent fixture for my tank. The tank
is a 125 gallon and is 23" deep. Here's a link to the fixture.

http://www.thatpetplace.com/Products.../Itemdy00.aspx

It comes with two 96 watt 10,000K and two 96 watt actinic bulbs. Each is a
double tube bulb. There's also a bulb on the market that is half actinic and
half 10,000K. Replacing the actinics would give me 3/4 of the output in the
10,000K range and only 1/4 actinic. Would that be a good idea?

The tank is currently FOWLR, but I intend to eventually add some soft corals.

George Patterson
Forgive your enemies. But always remember who they are.

George Patterson wrote:
I'm considering buying the Coralife HO fluorescent fixture for my tank.
The tank is a 125 gallon and is 23" deep. Here's a link to the fixture.

http://www.thatpetplace.com/Products.../Itemdy00.aspx


It comes with two 96 watt 10,000K and two 96 watt actinic bulbs. Each is
a double tube bulb. There's also a bulb on the market that is half
actinic and half 10,000K. Replacing the actinics would give me 3/4 of
the output in the 10,000K range and only 1/4 actinic. Would that be a
good idea?

The tank is currently FOWLR, but I intend to eventually add some soft
corals.

George Patterson
Forgive your enemies. But always remember who they are.

I think these are CF's, not VHO's. In fact, I don't think coralife (aka:
energy savers unlimited) makes any VHO fixtures. They make decent stuff.
Nothing special, but decent. (all three light setups I own that are over
my nano's are theirs, BTW - one of which is the 24 inch vesrion of the
one you are looking at)

Decent light at a decent price.

Whether or not it is "enough" depends on what you want it for. For clams
such as croceas and corals like acroporas, this probably would not be
enough on a 23" deep tank, unless you put the specimens right up at the
top of the tank (even then, you'd be pushing it). For most soft corals,
clams like derasas, most anemones, it's probably fine.

If you want stuff that needs a lot of light, you may want to look at
this one:
http://www.thatpetplace.com/Products.../Itemdy00.aspx

That's 4x96=384/125gallons=3.07 watts per gallon. That's
only enough light to grow low light stuff. It would be
better to get around 6 or over in watts per gallon so that
you can grow anything.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



George Patterson wrote on 12/21/2006 5:26 PM:
I'm considering buying the Coralife HO fluorescent fixture for my tank.
The tank is a 125 gallon and is 23" deep. Here's a link to the fixture.

http://www.thatpetplace.com/Products.../Itemdy00.aspx


It comes with two 96 watt 10,000K and two 96 watt actinic bulbs. Each is
a double tube bulb. There's also a bulb on the market that is half
actinic and half 10,000K. Replacing the actinics would give me 3/4 of
the output in the 10,000K range and only 1/4 actinic. Would that be a
good idea?

The tank is currently FOWLR, but I intend to eventually add some soft
corals.

George Patterson
Forgive your enemies. But always remember who they are.

Wayne Sallee wrote:
That's 4x96=384/125gallons=3.07 watts per gallon. That's only enough
light to grow low light stuff. It would be better to get around 6 or
over in watts per gallon so that you can grow anything.

I never understood the logic behind the straight "watts per gallon" rule
of thumb. It's good for general ballpark, but not much else.

Consider that 1watt of PC lighting has more lumens than 1 watt of
standard flourescent. 1 watt of metal halide light has more lumens than
1 watt of PC lighting.

And of course the lumens per watt vary greatly by bulb model and
manufacturer as well.

Watts by themselves don't give you the full story of how much light will
be produced.

Add Homonym wrote:

I think these are CF's, not VHO's.

You're right.

George Patterson
Forgive your enemies. But always remember who they are.

Add Homonym wrote:
coralife
Decent light at a decent price.
lots of snips - not meant to distort

what brand do you recommend?

I'm energy conscious, so I'm hesitant to buy a 700 watt fixture. In my
area, that would run me $350/year in electricity alone (not to mention
air pollution).

--Kurt

KurtG wrote:
Add Homonym wrote:

coralife
Decent light at a decent price.

lots of snips - not meant to distort

what brand do you recommend?

I'm energy conscious, so I'm hesitant to buy a 700 watt fixture. In my
area, that would run me $350/year in electricity alone (not to mention
air pollution).

--Kurt

If you can afford it, the PFO solaris lights look VERY nice.
Also very expensive.

But they are very cool (both meanings of the word apply - they are both
"hip" and low temp)

it's a big array of high output (3 watt)LEDs. Color can be varied by
turning on/off various LED's, and there is a computer controller with
clock that allows you to program this. Can have blue LEDS come on a few
at time, then the whites, to simulate sunrise, etc.

Someone did an independant test, and the 24" version (which is 150
watts) of these has output comparable to a 250 watt 20K Ushio metal
halide (the Solaris actually produces more photosyntheticly usable
light, but slightly less total light than the MH)

I haven't seen one of these in person myself, but they LOOK to be awsome,

24" vesrion runs something like $1300 or so. They make these in sizes
14" all the way up to 72".

Add Homonym wrote:
If you can afford it, the PFO solaris lights look VERY nice.
Also very expensive.

Ouch! $2345 for a 48" hood. It would be a 5 year payback. Maybe less
if I count AC costs.

What brand do you recommend for MH lights?

--Kurt

Add Homonym wrote:

If you can afford it, the PFO solaris lights look VERY nice.

At $3,539.00 for my tank, they *should* look very nice!

George Patterson
Forgive your enemies. But always remember who they are.

KurtG wrote:
Add Homonym wrote:

If you can afford it, the PFO solaris lights look VERY nice.
Also very expensive.


Ouch! $2345 for a 48" hood. It would be a 5 year payback. Maybe less
if I count AC costs.

What brand do you recommend for MH lights?

--Kurt

For lighting, it's not really the fixture manufacturer that is critical,
but the bulb manufacturer (and to some extent, the ballast manufacturer)

Lotta more experienced reefers (ie: not me!) don't even buy a full setup
as one item - they get it all piecemeal - Buy the fixture, ballast,
bulbs all seperate. Or maybe even one step further - buy a hood,
reflector, light socket, ballast, and bulb all seperate.

Been digging around trying to find some site that lists data on spectral
output of different brands/models of bulbs, but to no avail.
What one wants is stuff that puts out at the ends of the visible
spectrum (ie: red/orange and blue/violet, and even slighly up into the
UVA band, IIRC, and less so yellow - and of course green is largely
reflected away) - these are the wavelengths that photsynthesies uses.
(more or less - different organisms have different types of clorophyll
that utilze different parts of the spectrum differently) Sorta flies in
the face of common sense - we have a "yellow" sun, so one would assume
plant life would like yellow best. But that ain't the case.

One thing I am aware of, is that one can not go by the kelvin ratings
alone to know what the actual spectral output of a bulb would be. These
are "rough fit" type ratings. The "kelvin" ratings, if I am not
mistaken, describe the spectral output of stars at certain temperatures.
Man made light bulbs are most often NOT going to match these 100%.
Light may look the same, but put it through a prism, and see waht the
output is in different bands, and you are going to see differences.

So, is that 20,000K blue white light mostly blue with some yellow and a
touch of red? Or is it even more blue, with less yellow and a bit more
of green and a bit more of of red? Overall color may look exactly the
same, but there would be a big difference between the two for xooanthellae.

I'm hardly an expert in this area - I have only owned 1 metal halide
myself, and have only had that for 4 months! FWIW, it's a coralife
double ended HQI 14K "hang on tank" I have no idea of the actual
spectral output.

So, in a nutshell, I can't give you an simple brand recommendation and
keep a clear concience.