Lighting Emergency

[FishDad2]

I'm in the process of converting my reef tank to a fish only and today, a few hours after removing the halide fixtures, the remaining lighting on the tank died when my old VHO ballast gave out...and my backup was fried a few months ago so the tank was plunged into darkness. I've since setup some temporary lighting but I need to get a proper solution in there quickly.

The question is, what's best solution to use as a replacement? Do I simply replace the VHO ballasts or is it time to move to T6 or perhaps LED?

The tank itself is 72"L x 30"H x 24"D ... 225 gallons. The corals have been removed but it's my hope to retain my RBTA. So, while I don't need to provide illumination for corals I would like to provide enough light for the anemone and of course to have a nicely lit aquarium that brings out the colors of the fish.

If I go with T6, should I go with 60" bulbs even though the tank is 72"L or would I be better off with two sets of 36" bulbs? I'm thinking 60" should be ok...just 6" at each end wouldn't have coverage. Agree/Disagree? How many bulbs would you suggest given the tank dimensions?

Even more perplexing are the options for LED lighting. I like the idea of going with LED but haven't a clue what to get to provide proper illumination. Any advice as to LED options would b greatly appreciated.

I've pretty much ruled out going with VHO again as that's an older technology and uses the most electricity of the three options. So, I could use guidance relative to the T6 and LED options.

Thanks for your help!!

[FishDad2]

Would 3 of the "Panorama LED Retrofit" units from Ecoxotic do the trick? I just came across these as I continue my research and they look like they have potential...but I'm not familiar enough with LED's to really have a clue and I don't want to spend gobs of $ only to find that I have a poorly lit tank.

http://www.ecoxotic.com/aquarium-led...etrofit-2.html

I've also included this old photo of the tank to hopefully help you in making recommendations.

[RotaryGeek]

I would go back to the halides. Anemones need almost as much light as corals do, and you already have it. Why dump more money into lights?

[clydog]

i have a lta in a 28 g with 2x65w pc

[FishDad2]

Putting the MH back is a possibility but the long term operating costs of 1,200 watts of halides (electricity & bulb replacements) is nothing to sneeze at. Not to mention the heat they throw out whic in turn heats the water and causes the chiller to kick in more often...and chillers really suck up electricity.

I'm thinking this transforamtion from reef to fowlr provides me an opportunity to lower my operational costs, which is why the halides came out and I was going to run with the VHO only. But now that the VHO ballast died, I'm looking at my options.

For example, I did some calculations on electrical costs, bulb costs and initial purchase costs of using the current MH and VHO solution versus switching to a T6 or an LED colution and the differences are staggering. Including initial purchase costs of everything I'd need to buy today to get each solution operational as well as 10 years of operating costs (electricity and bulb replacements), it shakes out like this:

Restoration of current MH & VHO solution: ~$7,800
T6 solution (8 x 36" bulbs): ~$2,900
LED solution (3 x Ecoxotic Panorama 36...108 total LED's) ~$1,350

What's not factored in above is added electrical costs that come from the need to run the chiller more with teh MH & VHO solution...even somewhat with the T6 solution. as compared to LED's. So, even if I needed more than 8 T6 bulbs or 3 of the Panorama LED units, the long term operational savings are still quite significant.

Of course, if I need massively more T6 or LED's than I've guesstimated above then the equation tips a bit.

So, who has recommendations to make for either T6 or LED's so I can start doing more informed comparisons of my alternatives?

[moondoggy4]

Coralvue is now selling the new version of the ice cap 660 ballast. I would run two bubls and see if that is enough. There is usually someone selling VHO's for cheap here.

[moondoggy4]

http://www.aquariumspecialty.com/lig...ue-660-ballast I would get this and run two bulbs and see if that would work.

[FishDad2]

The IceCap 660 is what I'd be replacing...was looking at the CoralVue as a possible replacement for the VHO's. I could also pick up T5 endcaps and use it to power a new T5 setup.

Do you think 2 x 60" T5 bulbs would be enough given the size/depth of my tank? Or are you suggesting I stick with VHO bulbs?

[FishDad2]

I decided to pull the trigger on a T5 retrofit kit the uses 4 x 60" bulbs and the CoralVue 660 ballast. The purchase costs for everything aren't all that much more than getting my old MH & VHO solution back on its feet but the long term operating costs are much lower with the T5's.

I really wanted to go cutting edge and get an LED system but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. The technology is too new and I saw several posts about manufacturers using low-end parts on the internals in order to be price competitive and it undermined my confidence. I also wasn't sure what to buy given the volume and depth of my tank. LED solutions are relatively expensive and I'd hate to spend that $ to end up with the wrong thing.

With T5's I basically know what I'm getting, as they're not all that dissimilar from VHO, and if I need more lighting the T5 solution is small enough that I won't have any problems adding extra bulbs or even throwing in some LED strips to provide added pop.

[moondoggy4]

I think you made a good choice, nice thing bout a canopy you can do DIY's. The Reefbrites XHO's are a very bright LED strip, not cheap though, but easy to install.

[FishDad2]

Youza, you're not kidding about the Reefbrites being a chunk of change!! They do look cool though. Will wait to see how things go with the T5's before I add any more lighting though.

[one clownfish]

I would add a Dimm4 controller $85 running your fans and 12 Roylal Blue leds. Then a strip of (14) RB running on a CC MW-LPC-35-700. You could do the whole setup for about $240 or so if you have a soldering iron. Then you could ramp in the morning and evening, add some shimmer and finally add some par for your RBTA. OR ditch the controller and go with (3) strips of RB for around the same money. Start small and see if you like doing DIY projects. Its not any harder than running all the wires for the T5 and in the future if you decide to go Led all the way you already have a lot of the hardware.

[FishDad2]

I enjoy DIY and it will be a consideration if/when I need to add more light.

[Bosco83]

I would just stagger the 60" bulbs to cover the whole length of your tank to get even coverage.

[FishDad2]

Yep...I'm going to mount them to a piece of wood in a staggered pattern and then mount the wood inside the canopy. It will make it much easier to stagger the bulbs and manage installation/maintenance if I do all of the mounting work outside of the canopy.

Good suggestion...thank you.

[FishDad2]

The T5's are in and the tank is well lit. Unless it starts to look like the RBTA isn't getting enough light I think I'll be good. Perhaps once all the fish are added I might get some supplemental LED's to bring out the colors but only time will tell if that's necessary.

All that good news aside, I am having an issue with the ballast not always turning on. I believe that all the connections are good and the bulbs are in the end caps properly but I did make a wiring modification that might be causing the issue.

Essentially, the lights come on for a moment and then go off...sometimes it's a brief moment and sometimes it's as long as 20 seconds. If I unplug the ballast and plug it back in eventually the lights will stay on. Perhaps it's caused by the extra wire I added to the wires that run to the far left end of my tank. I added the wire because I needed to extend the wiring running to the end of the tank so that the harness connector would pass through a hole at the far right end of the canopy which in turn allows me to mount the ballast outside the canopy where there's no danger it will get wet.

Perhaps I've exceeded some maximum allowable length of wire? If so, what's that maximum length?

Or perhaps the fact that one set of wires is now several feet longer than the other set is causing the problems?

Then again, it could be totally unrelated.

Anyone have any experience they can share on this one?

[moondoggy4]

Did you use the same gauge wire as what was on the ballast? Are all of the connectors really tight or just appear to be tight, be careful so you do not get shocked. Are the bulbs sitting correctly in the end caps?

[FishDad2]

Same gauge wiring was used, all the connections are snug and the bulbs are in the end caps nicely. Right now I'm at a loss.