venting.. and I'm new to 3reef

I have alot of questions.. lol.
1st, how did you guys get your tank stats at the bottom of your feeds like a signature?
2nd, I have never been on one of these forum things so please excuse me if I sound stupid.
3rd, I finally made an account because I was told that you could drill a 150 for drains and when I googled it, I noticed it is one of those back and forth topics like Odyssea MHS lighting. Well, I drilled my 150g after I practiced on about 30 ten gallon tanks. The LFS asked me to help drill them so he could use them to breed Clowns. Well I busted the 1st one and the 7th one but got it down to about 10 minutes per 1" hole. So I decided to try my 150g. Well, it didnt work so I would advise not to do it.
4th, about those Odyssew MHS (48"), The only feeds I was catching were old 2005-2006 models with single power controls. The one I am looking at is 2009. Are they better now?
I don't know if this is too much for a thread so someone let me know because I have alot more questions!!
Like, I have 2-250w MH and 4-vho's... I want to try to cut back on electric but not if its going to cost me too much to upgrade. Are the Metal Halides that I have brighter than the small ones in that Odyssea hood?

Honestly, Are T5's brighter than Power compacts? My LFS said that T5's are just as bright as VHO's but if the wattage is less, wont I literally lose "watts per gallon"? Im keeping acro and other sps and dont want to lose everything "trying" new lights.

I have a million more but I'll post them later becase I dont want to agrivate anyone.. lol

Thank you all for your help, wisdom and being here!

 

yeah there were some gramatical errors and I didn't proof read it but...
what I meant by the Odyssea hood was are my 250w MH's ran by individual Ice Cap ballasts brighter because of a bigger bulb? or is 250 watts = 250 watts no matter how you cut it?

Is it cheaper to just buy the Odyssea hood or use my ballasts to rewire pcs or T5s (which ever is better) and keep my Big MHs. What I was inquiring about the MHs was: The cost on a replacement bulb for the Odyssea hood is 19.99. The cost of my big bulb is 64.99 >>> See? Is it worth going to Odyssea overall? Thats what I was trying to get at.

Sorry again for being annoying.. lol.

 

Greetings. T5s are getting better and better. Stay away from PCs. They just don't have the PAR value that the T5s and MH fixtures provide. And they do not penetrate well past the 12 inch mark. If you have a tank that is 24 inches deep, you can easily get away with a good T5 array. Look at TEK and Nova Extreme Pro. They have individual reflectors and provide much in the way good usable light. You will notice that T5s don't do very well past 21 inches, but with the 2 inch sand bed and about an inch from the top of the tank to the water line, that is what you are dealing with anyway....21 inches. Anything past that, I would use MH. The general rule of thumb is about 4 to 5 watts per gallon. Take for example, my 90g standard. I want to put a TEK 8x54W T5 array with UVL bulbs (a must IMO). That is 4.8 watts per gallon. Probably a little overkill as I think about it. But I will be able to keep anything. And it will be good.

PCs will not keep SPS or acros. T5s and MH will.

 

WOW, I didn't expect a response so fast.. Thank you!
That makes sence. My friend has one of those hoods with 2 MHs but I think they are in the 100 W range (def not 250 like Odyssea) and has 4 PCs. He keeps Acro but WAAAAAY up top and has to keep trimming them ( where I got my frags from) But he swears by PC and showed me two of his tanks with the same corals and the other tank was T5s. The colors of the corals were better in the PC tank and he says its from the PC's but now that I think about it, he doses that tank with Amino, Trace and alot more supliments... maybe thats why.
But like you were saying, My other friend at the LFS swears T5s all the way and they go back and forth who knows more.. lol. I just want it right. It seems more reefers sway toward T5s and I think I may go with the majority on this one.
Your tank is bad ass by the way and thank you again for the response.

 

first off, Welcome to 3reef! about the odysea question, i don't know a whole lot about them, but i know T5's are gaining popularity, i myself including others use T5 over halides. T5 bulbs can/are putting out more lumen's per watt than Halides, WITH better PAR values, of course with the right fixture/ballast. and BTW ask as many questions as you would like, many people here are eagerly happy to help. Any pictures of your set-up?

 

I appreciate your response. I haven't uploaded any yet but I will come back to this thread and let you know the second I do. I had a bad ass 150 (the 6' one) and I put everything into my 55 and 10 so I could put drains in it. I had that CPR over flow and it was somehow eating the texture off my wall. I was told that with glass tops, reef ready aquariums dont do that. So I drilled my tank tonight and blew the bottom out of it. soooooooooooo depressed! I am at a pivotable point now. I can completely change everything, replace the bottom glass or get the half round that I've always wanted. I had to give alot of stuff away to do this drill project and now Im gonna have to start almost all over.

 

ahh jeez that sux man! hopefully things will turn around for you. BTW i think most larger tanks have tempered glass these days but don't quote me on that.

 

and thank you for the welcoming.
Im also going to have to research that "par".
I am unfamiliar with that.
I always thought Metal Halides were the best.
(Not saying you're not right) I just thought.. lol
wow, mind blower T5s can keep up with a metal Halide???
Is it true they last over a year compared to VHOs at 6 months?
How can it be if they are only HOs (chuckle) but really?
I understand new developments and technology but it keeps up with MH? WOW!

 

you know what PAR is...right?

and yes they can last more than a year but i would never recommend using them for that long. I think the largest benefit to T5 bulbs are heat, or lack of. Heat in time will destroy a bulbs life whilst dramatically reducing par values, one of MH's biggest faults in my opinion.

 

I told you I may sound like an idiot. I don't know what PAR is. I was told Vho lighting for what I wanted at the time and I got it. Then I wanted to move from soft coral and fish to hard coral so they said add Metal Halide for optimal growth. I now have 4 ballasts total. 2-250MH, 1-660, 1-430. All Ice Cap, totaling 7-48" 110w vho and 2-250w 20k Metal Halides. I have alot of Actinic because I liked the piercing blue. I haven't had any problems or stunted growth. I had a Monti Cap that is appx 28" (kinda football shaped from the back glass) but It broke in alot of pieces from the tank swap. My acros are lovin it too. I just wanted to swap the vhos for T5 or PC's (which will more than likely do T5s) But I was contimplating on if I should just scrap all that set-up and get that Odyssea 760 watt combe that had everything in one or if it was cheaper and better to "DIY" because Odyssea comes with PCs not T5s. Did I go off subject? If so, my apologies.