Lighting Question

[reef keeper]

as you may know I'm pulling a big upgrade together. It's a 220 sps dominated dimension 72x24x30" tall.

I picked up a 400 watt Bali sun mogul light and a PFO M80 for a song the other day.

I currently have a couple of de pendants that run off ice caps (sucks the way the guy had them jury rigged). I picked up 3 brand new in the box PFO M80 250w ballasts that I would like to run.

The M80 ballasts can run radium bulbs, which as we all know are amazing for growth and colour.

Question is this.....: should I just shell out for 2 more of the Bali lights and run mogul radium bulbs, or mess around with de bulbs. I've only had this one set of halides and it's running a mash up of different bulbs. I'd like to have my setup sweet from the start.

 

[curiousphil]

I know one thing for sure - the DE pendants you got from me are kind of like spotlights and will have no problem penetrating the 30 inch depth of your new tank. Whether you should go with 3x Bali Sun, I don't know. One Bali Sun in between the two DE pendants might work well.

I thought you had picked up a few Lumenarc reflectors a month or so ago? Those would still be my choice, if you did end up getting them, even though you ended up going with a 24" front-to-back tank.

P.S. are you sure that the new bali sun light came with a 400 watt ballast? M80 is a 250 watt spec - 400 would be either M135/M155 or M59. I'm guessing M80 is just a typo...

 

[reef keeper]

It's the huge pfo 400 watt lol. I did get 2 of the 22" lumen arcs from big show. You think those would be good even though the tank is only 24" wide?

I'll be building the canopy etc once I have the tank installed on the stand, so I have options to try. I love those little lights I got from you Phil.

 

[curiousphil]

The lumenarcs might throw a bit too much light on the glass, which could promote algae growth, but aside from that issue they would do a stellar job. Your corals would be flooded in light from all angles due to how wide the reflectors are.

 

[reef keeper]

I'll try them. All I have to buy are the 2 sockets. Getting in to the tank might be a little tricky, but if I do a sliding rail I can move them back when I need to get in there