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View Full Version : upgrading to halides - recoms combined w/ vho ? (pics)


K' Family Reef
12/04/2007, 07:17 PM
we have decided to upgrade our system
to better accomodate SPS corals and the research has begun!

right now primarily LPS corals
and currently have all VHO liting... which have read of others who only use all VHO on their SPS dominated tanks

see

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1018074

or

http://www.wamas.org/totm.php

but we like the shimmer of the halides and want to get the best coloring out of the corals that we end up purchasing

125
60x19x26 custom
x6 five foot VHO bulbs which i think = 850 watts liting (?)
(which probably aint bad for most things but not BEST)

one problem is there is a glass center support
which is about 18" wide - leaving 2 20" open sections on each side of this support

prefer to mount the halides in the canopy


basically open to any suggestions someone might have
re type lites/bulbs/ watts etc etc (know nothing about halides!)


was thinking that we might keep 4 of the VHO bulbs mounted inside the canopy and take the 2 center mounted ones out to mount the halides in there...

or

what would be a better lite combi to use w/ the halides
that is combined w/ VHO or to use T5 liting ETC ETC





just getting a feel for this right now and any opinions are appreciated... i also just recently learned about downloading photos on this site and using our camera LOL so here is a fts

regards


http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc130/WarrenAmyMadelinne/bestFTS.jpg

K' Family Reef
12/04/2007, 07:26 PM
guts of the system - mad scientist style
:dance:
http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc130/WarrenAmyMadelinne/stage2-stage1.jpg

50 gal display fuge
:thumbsup:
http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc130/WarrenAmyMadelinne/BESTfuge.jpg

lil Maddies favorite look out spot! :p
and xenia forest/chaeto for filtration in the fuge
http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc130/WarrenAmyMadelinne/DSC07067.jpg

going into 'devils throat' (cave dive) cozumel mexico
:thumbsup: :thumbsup:
http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc130/WarrenAmyMadelinne/scuba.jpg

:D

steven_dean17
12/04/2007, 07:33 PM
I like the look of 20k MH with t-5s. Now imagine if you will, those with your existing VHO. I just don't see where you could go wrong?

K' Family Reef
12/04/2007, 07:36 PM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11315453#post11315453 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by steven_dean17
I like the look of 20k MH with t-5s. Now imagine if you will, those with your existing VHO. I just don't see where you could go wrong?


steven_dean17

hello - what do you mean w/ the existing VHO?

would one combine halides/t5/vho ?
(would seem like a lot of liting!)

regards

bertoni
12/04/2007, 07:37 PM
Is the tank 26" tall? If so, I think it'd be fine with either high-efficiency 175 W bulbs or a good 250 W setup, if the reflectors were good, too. How much room does the canopy have?

steven_dean17
12/04/2007, 07:56 PM
You could always use the t-5 for accent more then main light because they come in alot of different spectrums (ie. blue, purple, white, and yellow) There are several different people using multi bulb, multi spectrum t-5 setups.