Mobile Bay Reef Keepers

okay so my work currently sells these coralife 50/50 bulbs for my 55 gal, i can get them pretty cheap and the thing is its 50% 6000k daylight and 50% actinic 3 blue. now i plan on having corals and the works in my tank but the problem is my 55 hood only supports 2 24' bulbs. i'd much rather get these than go and convert my ballests or get a new hood to support everything becuase its all on the pricy side, so if you could please help me out!

Thanks,
Keegan

No real difference between running two of those or running a single actinic bulb and a single 6,000K bulb. Though, the light would be split properly, actinic and daylight on both sides instead of either or.

You likely won't be able to keep much beyond some of the basic corals with those life, if at all. At only 40W (20W per bulb, IIRC) over a 55 gallon, it'll be stretching it. The best thing I ever did was invest in decent lights. From crappy power compacts to metal halides to just recently T5's. I prefer the Metal Halides, but they just get too hot for my liking...

yeah after reading about all the heat that the MHs give off i've decided that im not gonna go with them, i've heard of people having to like run fans and other things likes that just to keep the bulbs cool. well damn i was really hoping to have something like that so i wouldn't have to change a whole bunch of stuff to the hood or even buy a new hood because they are really expensive for my liking.

does t5 make a 50 50 bulb or something like that? because i really like the t5s and i really wanna get some but i REALLY dont wanna have to convert everything on my hood or have to buy a new one.

Check with Andy he had some T5 ballasts that will run (2) 4ft bulbs. You could run 2 or 4 4ft bulbs on your tank, with 4 bulbs you could keep most anything. Andy had a good price on them too.

Go with the 4 bulbs fixture. I have 8 39 Watt T-5 bulbs over my tank

alright i guess thats what im gonna have to go with because i want my tank to be able to support everything! is his screen name just andy or what? pretty much how can i get in touch with him?

the help is much appreciated

His screen name is andy4499.
By the way how did the new live rock work out for you. This is Zack.

This is the exact ballast that I have. I bought it a few years ago and never got around to using it. I think I paid close to $50 for is back then. I will sell it for $35 if you want it.

http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/group/7440/product.web

im going to stick up for the MH i have 2 175 MH on my tank and as you seen when you came over keegan... no fans!... MH are cheap.... you change your bulbs every 6-8 months in any fixture... well your supposed too. i buy 2 bulbs once a year unless needed sooner i only pay 100.00, t-5 guys. buy 4-8 bulbs annualy at 12-25.00 per bulb... the power usage "MH 0.9amp per ballast (1-175 bulb)" "t-5 0.42 apm per ballast 2 40W bulbs) 160W of T-5's is 0.84 the MH wins by what .2amp after the addition of 15W.
wires... 3-4 wires per bulb on T-12, T-8, T-5. thats 8 wires per ballast plus the power supply. MH 1 cable with 3 wires inside. a plug on one end snaps so easily into the ballast the other end strait into o yea the SINGLE end base no tombstones with wires everywhere. my tank runs 350W with only 2 plugs 2 ballast or 1 if you get the rite electronic ballast. if you wanted to match that with t-5's thats 4-5 plugs... 4-5 ballast 8-10 bulbs.... an entire powerstrip? i do have t-5s as my dusk dawn so im not bashing them i like the colors i can get with them and they are avalible everywhere. and if your as cheap as me... street lamps are mostly MH... you can get a free magnetic ballast from a demo site or at homedepo for like 25.00 all you need is to visit beev and get a base and bulb...

If you wanted to go the T5 route, there is also the option of using an IceCap ballast, which will slightly overdrive the lamps. The good news is that each IceCap 660 ballast will run 4 lamps up to 4ft each. That being said, each tank will be different. Some tanks will run well and cheaper with T5 lamps, whereas others will do better with MH. This is mostly due to coverage area. Moderate-sized, moderately wide tanks will usually do best to use T5s, since you can get good coverage with only a handful of bulbs or a single fixture. In terms of wattage, say for a 75g tank, you could use 6-54w lamps which would be brighter overall than 2-175w metal halides, depending on the lamp brand, color temperature, and ballast. If you were to use IceCap ballasts, the setup would be as bright as some 250w lamps, all for around the same wattage. That's not to say that a MH setup can't be brighter, because some are (6500-10000K lamps and lamps with M80 ballasts), but it can be done easily with T5s for around the same amount of energy and light. Now, for example, my tank, which is an 18x18x18 cube, wouldn't do best with T5s. Even if I used a 6-24w fixture it wouldn't be as bright as I wanted. It only made sense to use a 250w 10000K halide lamp and an efficient reflector. No setup, not even LEDs right now, would've given me the kind of light I wanted in such a small area.

Amphiprion wrote:If you wanted to go the T5 route, there is also the option of using an IceCap ballast, which will slightly overdrive the lamps. The good news is that each IceCap 660 ballast will run 4 lamps up to 4ft each. That being said, each tank will be different. Some tanks will run well and cheaper with T5 lamps, whereas others will do better with MH. This is mostly due to coverage area. Moderate-sized, moderately wide tanks will usually do best to use T5s, since you can get good coverage with only a handful of bulbs or a single fixture. In terms of wattage, say for a 75g tank, you could use 6-54w lamps which would be brighter overall than 2-175w metal halides, depending on the lamp brand, color temperature, and ballast. If you were to use IceCap ballasts, the setup would be as bright as some 250w lamps, all for around the same wattage. That's not to say that a MH setup can't be brighter, because some are (6500-10000K lamps and lamps with M80 ballasts), but it can be done easily with T5s for around the same amount of energy and light. Now, for example, my tank, which is an 18x18x18 cube, wouldn't do best with T5s. Even if I used a 6-24w fixture it wouldn't be as bright as I wanted. It only made sense to use a 250w 10000K halide lamp and an efficient reflector. No setup, not even LEDs right now, would've given me the kind of light I wanted in such a small area.

im confused... are you backing me up arguing or just saying? lol i butted in on this one because i know the guy. he has a walmart lid, i think i have talked him into coming over and letting me help him build a lid to suit what ever his lighting needs may be.

Not arguing or even disagreeing, just letting him know there are other options, as well.

If you're looking for a "dirt cheap" lighting fixture, check out some of the Current USA fixtures currently on eBay. CurrentUSA has a bunch of refurbished lighting fixtures listed. I picked a 6x54w fixture up a week ago and am satisfied with the change over from a Hamilton MH Fixture that had 2x175W MH's and 2 110W VHO Actinics. As I mentioned before, I did it mostly for temperature's sake. With the MH's, my 90 was getting into the upper 70's, 78ºF was the high with MH's. Now I am right at 75ºF at peak time with T5's. I am planning a pair of either Prognathodes aya or Prognathodes marcellae Butterflyfish, so I need to keep the tank on the cool side.

http://shop.ebay.com/currentusa/m.html? ... ksid=p3686