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View Full Version : 400 Watt Pendants - What should I do?


SoulFish
12/29/2008, 05:42 PM
Ok picked up a couple of PFO 400 Watt fixtures and a dual 400 Watt Ballast for $200.

I'm wanting to light a 180 gallon tank (72 x 24 x 24) Keep in mind, not fully edge to edge. Basically I want to have room around the corals so the fish can swim.

That being said can I just plug in one fixture and get enough lighting with one of these lights? 800 Watts for a 180 gallon tank seems a bit excessive to me. And electricity is very expensive in CA.

Let me know you guys thoughts on this.

SoulFish
12/29/2008, 07:22 PM
bumpy

Playa-1
12/29/2008, 09:27 PM
That being said can I just plug in one fixture and get enough lighting with one of these lights?
That depends on what your keeping in the tank, how your tank is Aquascaped, set-up, and how high your lights are mounted.

800 Watts for a 180 gallon tank seems a bit excessive to me. Yep, 800 watts seems a bit much to me too. Lighting requirements differ from tank to tank and there are a bunch of factors that need to be taken into consideration.

And electricity is very expensive in CA.
I feel your pain.


How did you come to the conclusion to buy two 400 watt pendants?, I would have gone with three 150w or 250w pendants depending on what your planning to keep in the tank. Maybe a MH/T-5 fixture would have been the ticket.

spleify
12/29/2008, 10:06 PM
You could always stagger the lighting from side to side. Maybe the left side in the afternoon and the right side evening?

SoulFish
12/30/2008, 12:13 AM
I ended up getting the lights b/c it was such a good deal. Only $200 for both pendants & ballast.

Maybe I'll just use one raise it up a bit in the center and kinda make a center coral reef piece that the fish can swim around. That way I'd consume about the same as a T5 setup.

I wanted to get 3 x 250's fixtures but the cost of buying them was almost triple what I got these lights for. And really 3 x 250's consumes well 750 Watts.. which is pretty close to these two 400's.

And I was looking at the Tek series T5's but needed 2 fixtures that had a total of 12 or 16 bulbs x 54 watts. So using a six bulb fixture would rate 648 Watts & a 8 bulb fixture would rate 846 Watts. So Electrical consumtion would be similar. But Initial cost and bulb replacment would be triple.

Thats the logic.. maybe it's flawed. But I guess I can try one and just see what happens. The tank is 24" deep and some said I needed alot of watts to do that depth. And one other idea I had is maybe with these lights I could cut out using a heater during the day. That alone would save me 600 watts. Just my logic and my ideas.

The stagering could be a good idea too. Just put them on timers each at 4-5hrs per day? Then run a small T5 at night just to look at the tank?

How does that sound? Am I crazy? Will those light burn everything in the tank?

Playa-1
12/30/2008, 12:37 AM
You won't need a heater when those lights are running.

slimy fish
12/30/2008, 01:30 AM
I also agree you won't need a heater when the lights are on.