Not happy with my lighting. Want to upgrade.

Your right dude I can't find em. only mogul base. I planned on getting radium 20k's next time around. cause galxy made their ballast around the radium 20k's

now im mad really wanted those bulbs in DE

 

Reply from Radium

 

I don't think you will have a lot of room for SE's on the 90g. I personally would stick with the DE's, and simply add t5s. The DE vs SE argument will be waged forever, and while I like SE's, it is hard to argue against the fact that SE's take up more room to fit good reflectors on them.

SE halides have better light than DE's, but the difference is negligible compared to the space they need.

I would try the aquaillumination retrofits, as apparently those reflectors are the ebst out there. The Tek reflectors (even the new style tek2's) stain with salt way to easily for my tastes. I wish ATI still had their t5 reflectors available. My ATI reflectors from 5 years of use still look great, while a tek2 with 2 years of use looks horrible and will not clean up.

Do not buy the IC overdriven VHO t5s, it isa waste of money and won't produce the look you want.

What kelvin halides are you running?

 

I realize how big the SE bulbs and reflectors are. Probably why Im prolly gonna stick with DE.

Im really going for top quality lighting in a canopy... dont wanna skimp on anything.

I dont know too much abot t5's... and would like to do nothing but top of the line t5's to supplement my MH's

Right not I hae phoenix 14k's for my MH's. Dont like the way my actinics are supplementing them right now. I have the blue actinics supplementing the phoenix's and Im not crazy bout em.

 

Would you rather have 10,000k Mh and supplement them with blue t5ho? That is how I and many others do it. You can't beat the PAR of a 10,000k halide, well, not without the bulb looking like garbage in a DT.

Icecap reflectors are very good, and clean up nicely. I can't speak about how the aquaillumination t5 reflectors clean up or how they deal with salt spray and staining.

 

One argument for going SE is that they do not require a UV shield since it is built into the lamp.

I bet you could fit two of the minis over your 90:
Lumen Bright Reflector - Mini: Premium AquaticsNever mind, those would not allow T5s on the side. They still look nice though!

These are what I would get. You can get them with the overdriving IceCap ballasts but I don't think it would be necessary with the MH:
http://www.reefgeek.com/lighting/T5_Fluorescent/AquaIllumination/Miro-4_Retrofit_Kits/48_inch__4x54W_Miro-4_T5_High-Output_Retrofit_Kit_w!_Bulbs_by_AquaIllumination

 

You're too funny. While I know the Coralife fixture isn't the most efficient, I question just how much of an improvement would be seen. Even high end dual fixtures use the small reflectors. Big pendants seem to be more spot light. Don't know th difference and amount of reflected light in the tank compared to each other.

Some others have retro fitted T5s to the fixture, but you can only fit 54ws, not quite enough room for 2 on each side. So one 96w PC is ding better than one 54w T5. Again, don't really see the need. Even 208w of T5 compared to 192 w of PC isn't going to be a huge difference.

But ya, after looking into it there really is no way to do a fixture like you want. You really need a canopy with retros. I am more than happy with my lighting. I was more concerned going to a 150-180. Was thinking 2 84w on each side of 250w MH. At least 3 54w on each side, and there are no fixtures that can accommodate that. I really do not wan to go to a conopy though. I like fixtures much better.

 

Im not upset with my fixture... but I know I can give my tank better lighting.

High class problems Powerman....

 

Definitely. I'm a sucker for gear too, for the 90g I'm pretty happy. I don't think the cost/benefit ratio will be very high on this project. The 250 mod was different. At least the Galaxy is still good.

 

I ran 2x250w of Mh and 2x54w of t5ho retros on my 90g and it worked great, even with bad reflectors for the halides.


I say simply put a pendant and retro set of t5s and mh and sell the old unit.