MH lighting on a 58G reef

[NasotheHutt]

After roughly a 4 year hiatus, my wife has given me her blessing on starting reefing again. As long as I keep it under control, meaning small. :wink: After sorting through everything I had saved I have decided to use an Oceanic 58 that I held on to. I still have two 400W Blueline E-Ballasts, that I used on another tank. I'm wondering if the Blueline's have been made obsolete? Could I run both on the 58 with two different color temperature bulbs, and no supplemental? Would it be best to only run one, and some VHO? Is a single 400W to much? Any thoughts would be great. Also I had planed on using Lumenarc 3 reflectors.

N

 

[Anonymous]

I'm setting up my 58 with 2 lumenarc mini's 150watts. I'm deciding on going with a 10k lamp with 2 24w T5' actinics or just going with 14k bulbs and no actinic.

400's would rock over that tank!

B

 

[SnowManSnow]

nah man.. blueline still makes good stuff

B

 

[Anonymous]

2 400W over a 58G might = boiling the tank.

I have a 250W PFO HQI MH pendant and 2 95W VHO Actinics over my 58G.

 

[Anonymous]

Dual 400's seem like over kill to me. 250's should be fine.

 

[NasotheHutt]

Heat is a major concern, is the heat generated in an aquarium from MH bulbs radiant from the bulbs or is it transmitted into the water though the light? I was thinking it's mostly radiant, if so, on the dual 400 route, I could use a UV shield, and "seal" the lights in the hood, from the water. Then use one or two 4" fans to move the hot air out of the hood. My other major worry with dual 400's is it just plain to much light. Or is there such a thing? I'd like to use what I already have, but it's not a necessity, I'm not 100% sure the ballasts still work after 4 years in storage. My plan is for just SPS, a few fish, and maybe a clam or two.

Bingo - If you go with the 24W T5's will you mount the perpendicular to the tank on the outside edges of the hood? 18" right?

N

 

[Anonymous]

Light in and of itself does not produce heat, the production of light on the other hand...

As you guessed, option A.

 

[Anonymous]

Naso,

Nope. Since I'm using icecap SLR reflectors I can angle them a bit. They're going to be SQUEEZED in beside the lumenarc minis. The mini's quoted dimensions are 13x12 so if I run the 12"front to back I still have 6" for the t5 reflectors

B

 

[Meloco14]

How long is that tank? If it is 3' long I would go with 1 of your 400 watters in a lumenarc. If it's 4' long go with both but maybe keep them higher off the water level. Or, try to sell those ballasts and get some 250's. The problem with too much light, other than heat, electricity costs, is that some lower light corals will bleach out. If you want all sps and clams you should be fine though.