Chronicles of a 20 (Bulkhead cracked!!!!!)

Great point!

I am not sure the shrimp made it. He was the most active of the two when I introduced them, but I haven't seen him since Friday evening. The goby comes out from the rocks (not too far), but the shrimp is no where to be seen.

 

Since I only run my hailides 7 hours a day, I am toying with the idea of adding actinic lighting to run when the halides are off. At first I was considering a t-5 bulb, but now I am thinking of adding a few LEDs.

My idea is to buy the driver from rapid LED that allows up to 4 LEDs to be driven by it.
Moonlight driver (350mA) - Rapid LED

I would then cut 4 blocks at 45 degree angles and mount them to my canopy on the left and right sides. The LEDS would be penetrating the water at a 45* angle (see rough sketch).

How bright would the tank be (it's 24" long) with 4 420 nm LEDs penetrating at 45* angles? Do you think I should run 2 420 nm and 2 whites to brighten it a little bit?

Would I need individual heat sinks or could I attach directly to the 4 blocks?
Heatsinks - Single LED Heat Sink - Rapid LED

 

The 4 bulbs I don't think are going to give you as much light as you are looking for. If you want actinic, I would seriously just do an actinic t5 across there and call it good. The LED's are going to look more like moonlights than anything. Adding the t5 actinic will also give you more MH bulb options because you won't have to buy the bulb just because it's blue. For example, when I ran MH a few years back, I really liked the growth I got from my xm 10k bulbs but I also ran actinics to suppliment.

 

My only hang up with the t-5 is that the halide covers the whole top of the canopy, front to back and side to side. I would need to mount it below the halide and I don't know if the bulb would handle the heat from the halide. I guess I could mount it on a 45* angle from the back also.

 

thats a lot of light for a 20g ....

LEDs would be a better move, or just T5s...

Halide would be overkill no?

 

He's already running metal halide.

 

That is a toughy and a situation I ran into when I was running MH on my tank. The reflectors were just too big to add the t5 in as well

 

Oops sorry

 

No need to. It is overkill, no question. Hard to pass up a Hamilton halide when offered it as a trade, however. I've always wanted halide and heat isn't an issue.

 

Yep. I think I may be able to get it to work. I'll need to find a cheap ballast though. I have a 24"ish bulb already .