My aquarium light (720 watts)

Aaron1100us · #1 12-08-2005, 06:11 PM

Thought you might like these pictures. They aren't the best though. I have a 75 gallon aquarium with 720 watts of light on it, just a little bright. It has dual 10,000k 250 watt metal halides and dual 110 watt antinic VHO bulbs.

Aaron1100us · #2 12-08-2005, 06:13 PM

second picture with hood opened

Lando · #3 12-08-2005, 06:40 PM

that's very bright, I think your fish will need sunglasses

What fish will you be keeping in there and do they really need that much light?
720 W in total...the electricity company is going to be happy at the end of the month

Aaron1100us · #4 12-08-2005, 06:49 PM

The lights are really for the corals. I recently restarted my aquarium after moving and don't have much for corals at the moment. Different types of corals require different amounts of light. Corals have algea that live in them that make them grow and therefore, needing light. Soft corals don't need much and stony corals, anemonies and clams require intense light. I used to have some stony corals and one anemone and hope to get some more to fill my aquarium back up, looks kinda dull right now. I usually run the antinics about 5 hours a day and the metal halides about 3 hours a day. I was running them 10 hours on the VHO's and 8 hours on the halides but that gets very costly. Plus the bulbs don't last as long then, only about a year or so and $65 to $120 a bulb is way too costly to replace once a year. For fish, right now I have a yellow tang, hippo tang, and two clown fish. And I have a leather coral and a few small mushroom corals right now. Kinda dull for now but I hope to add more sometime soon.

AtomicX · #5 12-08-2005, 10:59 PM

Nomad · #6 12-09-2005, 02:00 AM

Have you considered running power compacts? I used to run a planted freshwater tank with several of the 2 for $6 daylight 4' tubes you can get at home depot plus several power compacts. Worked nicely. I dunno if your corals will get enough light with that few hours per day.

Fishnerd from WAY back.

Aaron1100us · #7 12-10-2005, 06:49 AM

Hello. I used to run power compacts on my 29 gallon aquarium. I started that one before I got my 75. Power compacts are ok on small tanks with corals that don't require a lot of light like mushrooms and soft corals. The corals that I'm intrerested in have extreme light requirements such as anemonies and stony corals. Plus the light from the halides looks cool bouncing off the ripples of the water.

CLHC · #8 12-10-2005, 02:35 PM

Wow that's interesting Aaron!

If you're running 720 Watts on 75 gallons for your specified corals I wonder what my friend is running since he has a 500 gallon salt-water tank in his living room. I always find it fascinating having a little piece of the ocean in your living room. He's got corals (don't know what kind) and various anemones.

But then again lighting plays an important factor in these sea creatures don't they?

Aaron1100us · #9 12-10-2005, 07:00 PM

Wow, 500 gallons, that has got to look pretty cool. A friend of mine has a 225 gallon built in his wall and that makes mine look tiny. I'd like to know what your friend has for lights. My friend with the 225 has three 400 watt metal halides and two 110 watt VHO's on his tank which is 6 foot long, 3 foot wide and about 3 foot deep. One halide usually covers about a 2 foot area since they are point source lights. I used to have a single 20,000k 400w metal halide on my little 29 gallon aquarium that housed two clown fish and a sebae anemone. I'll try to load some pics. The heat was so bad, the temp kept jumping up even with a fan on the water and it evaporated about a gallon or more a day. My anemone got so large, it eventually overgrew the aquarium. I don't have the 400 watt halide going anymore and the 29 gallon is used for a refugium for my 75 gallon.

Aaron1100us · #10 12-10-2005, 07:04 PM

Here is the 400w metal halide pendant. It has a XM 400 watt bulb with a 20,000k color temp. I should have gone with 10,000k because the 20,000k doesn't look as bright, too much blue. It did add a neat bluish tint to the water though.

CLHC · #11 12-11-2005, 10:27 PM

That's interesting. . ."evaporating a gallon or more a day." Whoa I must say!

Anyways, I'll have to find out what my friend has and I'll post back here. And YES! the "bluish tint to the water" is indeed "neat" looking!

CLHC · #12 12-12-2005, 03:10 PM

Okay here's a bit of skinny information. . .

My friend is using a pair of 1000 Watt 20k Metal Halide Bulbs.

Navck · #13 12-12-2005, 11:06 PM

Careful you don't put any fish in there, or else dinners pretty much ready.

But seriously. Thats bright..,

Aaron1100us · #14 12-13-2005, 09:26 PM

Cool, a pair of 1000 watt halides. That has to be a little costly on the electricity. Do you have any pics or could you get any? I'd love to see what it looks like. I've only seen a single 1000 watt halide setup over a large coral prop tank.

CLHC · #15 12-13-2005, 11:15 PM

Let me see if this would be possible. May take a while though. . .But I'll post back what I am able.—[How to buy a digital camera]. . .Hmmm. . .

StoneDog · #16 12-14-2005, 04:30 PM

So does the tank have issues with heat? I'd always wondered if a tank the size of yours would heat up too much with dual MH.

Aaron1100us · #17 12-14-2005, 06:49 PM

Yeah, it has had heat issues before. Not too bad now since it is December and the basement is fairly cool. It has two 4 inch fans in the canopy blowing air accross the water. I try to keep temps between 78 and 80 degrees. In the summer, its shot up to around 84. When it does that, I either shut one halide down and if that doesn't work, I shut them both off and just run the VHO. I'd like to get a chiller but one for my size of tank is around $800 or so. I've got a total of 124 gallons. There is a 29 gallon and a 20 gallon plumbed up to the 75. One is a sump and the other is a refugium.