250W or 400W for a 90gal?

[Mihai]

I'm trying to decide whether to upgrade (from crummy 160W NO) to
dual 400W MH or to dual 250W MH.

I'm ready to go for the new 13,000K or 14,000K bulbs and go without
the actinics (unless you have strong arguments against this). The
arguments in favor of this decision are: less heat, less energy, less
money on bulbs each year.

My main question is: should I go for 250W SE or 400W SE? (given that
250W DE give the same light as 400W SE, I do not include it as a
choice here: if your advice would be for 400 SE I'll try to get a 250
DE for obvious energy savings).

There are two distinct effect affecting the choice:

1) Because I go without actinics I should go with the higher watts:
the watts of the MH w/o actinics should be same as the watts of the
MH with actinics + the watts of actinics.

2) Because I go without actinics I will keep the MH on for 11-12 hours
a day. In other words I will not have the usual dawn and dusk mode
where only the actinics are on. Thus I should go with less MH watts
than a person that keeps his/her MH on only for 6-8 hours.

The setup is a 90gal (48x18x24) i.e., 24" high, but with a 6" DSB (in
this respect more like a 75gal bare bottom).

I plan to keep:

a) soft corals and LPS

b) if at some point I will fall victim to the bug that seemed to have
bitten most reef-keepers, SPSs.


For now I have some mushrooms, leather corals, Xenia, zoanthids that
are doing OK.

I'm looking forward to your advice.
Thanks for taking the time,
Mihai

 

[Mikef1]

I run 2 400w radiums over my 90 gal with 2 110w VHO actinics, might be to much blue for some people but I like it and my sps color up awsome with it.

 

[Mihai]

Mike, this suggest that 510 x 2 watts of lights is not too much for a 90 gal?!!!

Do you have any mushrooms, LPS or other softies?
M.

 

[reefland]

My main question is: should I go for 250W SE or 400W SE? (given that250W DE give the same light as 400W SE, I do not include it as a choice here: if your advice would be for 400 SE I'll try to get a 250
DE for obvious energy savings).

I'm not so sure the savings are obvious between the 250 and 400w units. According to the PFO web site:

250W MH 2.5A
250W HQI 5.5A
250W EYE 6.85A

400W MH 4.0A
400W HQI 5.2A
400W EYE 3.9A

http://www.pfolighting.com/new%20pfoAq/ ... agrams.htm

True? Typo? matches a sticker I have on top of my PFO ballast.

 

[Mihai]

Well, that's the "maximum" current drawn. It might be the maximum that the ballast can provide, or the start-up current. You know, like the "up to 25%" savings you get at Sears .

I think that there is no question that a 250W MH consumes (significantly) less than a similar (e.g. SE/DE) 400W MH bulb.

M.

 

[hillbilly]

If it were my tank, I would run 2 250w HQI's with 20k bulbs. Best way to go if this is going to be the only light source. I use this myself and you can't beat it.

 

[Mihai]

OK, this is a second vote for 400W SE (same light as 250W DE).
M.

 

[Mikef1]

My 400s are ran off a pfo dual HQI ballast, I would say they are more intense than 250de but a 250de is more intense than a 400se that is not ran off a HQI ballast, does that make sense to everyone. Also yes I do have a variety of LPS also

 

[Unarce]

If it were my tank, I would run 2 250w HQI's with 20k bulbs. Best way to go if this is going to be the only light source. I use this myself and you can't beat it.

I'd go with the 250W DE, too. Can't lose with 20K as a stand-alone bulb, either.

 

[Anonymous]

Steve Tyree just spoke at a recent meeting here--his suggestion for bulbs (IIRC?!) was to go with either a 6500K and 20000K combo OR a 10000K and 20000K combo. No need for actinc supplementation either way. I think the reasoning was that the 6500K and 10000K bulbs already have a lot of blue in them, while 20000K have a lot of purple in them. DON'T QUOTE ME ON THIS, as I'm just working on memory. I do remember for sure that he said he would choose a 20000K if he only had one bulb to go with. If you're not familiar with Steve, he's an SPS coral farmer.

 

[Ogre]

I ran a 400w 20k k bulb on my tank and it made just about everything happy. My rose was absolutely gorgeous, the greens were super vibrant and my blue zooanthids looked damn good as well. As did the blue dots on my gigas.

 

[Anonymous]

I can attest to that! What's up Andy?

 

[Mihai]

Then 250W DE it is (either 20,000K or 14,000K).
Thanks,
Mihai

 

[reefland]

which brand bulb you gonna use?

 

[Ogre]

yo matt, things are good. leaving for the air force in 3 weeks. no more reef tanks for me. So i gotta live through you guys.

 

[Mihai]

I'm leaning towards the Hamilton 14,000K DE.
Any advice is apreciated.
Thanks,
Mihai

 

[ChrisRD]

Your energy company charges you for the power that you're using (ie. watts). Looking at the max amp draw of an electrical device won't tell you much about the average power (watts) it's consuming while running.

To make matters even more complicated in this case (lighting), wattage consumption and amp draw will vary from lamp to lamp even on the same ballast. IMO, the easiest thing to do is just plug the thing into a watt meter...

 

[ChrisRD]

BTW, I run 250 watt DE AB 20Ks - no complaints so far. Not the cheapest lamps, but chose to stick to the ABs because I trust the quality of German-made lamps.

The Hamilton 14Ks look nice too - I considered them. I've never had a chance to compare them to the ABs side-by-side so I couldn't really comment on how they stack up to each other.

Apparently, from the talk on the boards, one of the best 250 DE lamps out there (if you're looking at stuff bluer than 10K) is the AquaConnect 14Ks. Good luck finding them though (and they are $$$).

HTH

 

[hillbilly]

Heck, I couldn't find AB 250w DE when I switched from AB 10k's. AB's are great! Where did you get your's Chris?

 

[ChrisRD]

http://www.inverts.com

I don't think they're shown on the site. You can give a ring and talk to Jeremy...

HTH