lighting an aquarium for acropora

by **jav36** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 12:43 am

alright guys im trying to figure out some expenses for my future aquarium. im planning on keeping acropora and montipora with metal halide lighting but im not sure if i can afford it. is it true that you can go to walmart and buy fixtures then get bulbs from somwhere else to avoid expensive prices? or will my only choice be buying 500$ metal halides at my lfs? anyone whos tried this or has anything to say about it, leave a comment

thanks

by **saltwaterpimp** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 12:49 am

http://cgi.ebay.com/36-Aquarium-Metal-H ... 0208566151

by **angus4481** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 2:52 am

jav, the fixtures i was tellin you bout is floresent, not halide. sorry for the misunderstanding

by **jav36** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 12:56 am

ohhh so with the floresent what corals could it support?

by **somalia123** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 4:37 am

ive seen good deals on mh on ebay

by **saltwaterpimp** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 5:26 pm

it depends on how many watts per gallon you will have..ho floresents can keep some montipora and all softies.

by **schigara** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 7:08 pm

Take a look at this DIY Metal Halide setup.

http://aquarium.union.rpi.edu/articles/DIY_MH.html

I used this setup for over a year and did get good growth. It uses an Advance Mercury Vapor ballast that will fire a Iwasaki 250w SE 6500k bulbs. Not sure if it will fire any of the other Iwasaki bulbs but it might. The 6500 was just way to yellow for me.

I now run 2 250w Reeflux 12K DE's from Blueline electronic ballasts.

by **Snowboss4492** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 9:28 pm

nice build article...i'm in the planning stages of a big DIY tank and have been searching for some DIY lighting options........i used to build gas stations for a living out in Kansas and we put 420 watt metal halide {scottsdale, brand} fixtures in the canopies.......i don't know what the spectrum is on them but i know our cost for a 24"X24" box fixture was around 150 bucks....and they ran on 220vac......which is much cheaper to run over 110vac........thoughts? {i just sent an email to them to see what they have available............Boss

by **Peterkarig3210** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 10:10 pm

I burned my fish's eyes using a halide floodlight. It was one of these things that requires little power and floods your driveway. I thought it would be good for my freshwater plants and then I noticed crescent shaped white cataracts in all three of my Spotted gar's eyes. Thankfully they quickly healed after removal of the light.

Some great deals for PC/halide/moonlight VHO/halide/moonlight on this post.

by **Snowboss4492** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 11:53 pm

oooooooooo damn man....good to know....sorry to hear it but definately a mistake I don't want to make...............poor lil fellers

lighting an aquarium for acropora

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