New Lumen Bright Reflector. ... any info on them

[martinphillip03]

Good question. I have no idea

Marty

Originally posted by chad508
ive got another question. im looking at running 400 watt se. i already have the coralvue dimmable ballast. i am going to dim them all the way down and from my math it will run the bulbs at 260 watts. is this safe to assume and is it fine to run the bulbs at this setting forever. i would think i could get more life out of the bulbs, run cooler and still get good par by going with the lb reflectors. would there be in benefit to stay with what i have verse just getting new 250 ballast and bulbs. any info would be great thanks

[tas5tas]

Will 250w bulbs with lumenbrights work on a 29" deep tank or do I need to get 400w bulbs instead. I plan on keeping mostly sps and will be using 20k bulbs.

[martinphillip03]

Originally posted by chad508
ive got another question. im looking at running 400 watt se. i already have the coralvue dimmable ballast. i am going to dim them all the way down and from my math it will run the bulbs at 260 watts. is this safe to assume and is it fine to run the bulbs at this setting forever. i would think i could get more life out of the bulbs, run cooler and still get good par by going with the lb reflectors. would there be in benefit to stay with what i have verse just getting new 250 ballast and bulbs. any info would be great thanks

I would take this question to the lighting forum.

Marty

[coryjones]

I have a 30" 220 and i started with 250w with 3 lumen se and it lit it but there was dark spots and if you are going to do sps you will need 400w i switched to them and never looked back i love them i am runing 14k hamilton on magnetic ballasts.

Originally posted by tas5tas
Will 250w bulbs with lumenbrights work on a 29" deep tank or do I need to get 400w bulbs instead. I plan on keeping mostly sps and will be using 20k bulbs.

[A sea K]

Originally posted by coryjones
I have a 30" 220 and i started with 250w with 3 lumen se and it lit it but there was dark spots and if you are going to do sps you will need 400w i switched to them and never looked back i love them i am runing 14k hamilton on magnetic ballasts.

How high were your bulbs off the water? I'm setting up 250's for a 29" deep 210 and dark spots were a major concern. After pouring through this thread and looking at similar setups I was convinced the 250's would be perfect for my tank if the bulbs were 15" or higher off the water.

[coryjones]

I tried it all mine are adjustable the 400w are about 10" right now i i like the way it is working out. This is the 250w in the middle of 2 400w bulbs.It is not as glare as it seems in the pics. bare with me the camera is not the greatest.You will have heating problems running 3 400w i can tell you first hand i keep my house 63 and the tank maintains 77-78. Honestly i turn on the celling fan in that room to use the heat off the lights to help heat the house. I think in the summer i will be buying a chiller.




This is what i ended up building



I cut fans in to the top of the out side reflector to help reduce the heat it really seems to lower the temperature by almost 90 deg inside the reflector. Hopefully it will keep some of the heat away from the tank and make the bulbs last longer. Anything i can do to help just let me know i couldn't get much help when i wanted to buy these so iwill do what i can . I took lux readings it was the only thing i had to read it with .I did it on diffrent bulbs and reflectors and found what i wanted to go with.

[coryjones]

Here is one i took today with a new camera the lights are about 20" up due to trying not to burn my new 12" monti center piece. Notice the shadow from the braces.

[Typhon]

I have read thru this entire thread and I am very impressed by the Lumenbrights.

I am in the process of building a new tank. The dimension are 96"Lx48"Wx26"H. And I was wondering if 3x 400w SE with Large Lumenbrights provide enough coverage if I raise them high enough? I would appreciate any input.. TIA

[melev]

Originally posted by coryjones
This is what i ended up building

Those measurements say it all. I like the new look of your lights and matching lightrack. That's innovative.

[melev]

Originally posted by Typhon
I have read thru this entire thread and I am very impressed by the Lumenbrights.

I am in the process of building a new tank. The dimension are 96"Lx48"Wx26"H. And I was wondering if 3x 400w SE with Large Lumenbrights provide enough coverage if I raise them high enough? I would appreciate any input.. TIA

I'm thinking you'd need four Large ones, with the bulbs 18" off the water. Maybe staggered slightly. Three seems like a stretch, but Jim would probably be the best person to answer that.

[coryjones]

Ya i think you would end up with dark spots if you stagered them to i bet you will end up with 6 to do sps?

[cagri]

i covered 76 inch length with 3 large ones, 96 would require 4 I would think.

[squin]

I have 2 LB minis over my 90 and coverage is fine. You could try 3 and always add a 4th if needed. Check out this forum for some great ideas on building a rack.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...5&pagenumber=3

I did something similar. The EZ-Tube is inexpensive and fantastic for light racks. I did mine in black.

[chicken]

I am looking at redoing my lighting setup on my SPS system. The tank is 68" long x 24" deep x 32" Tall. I am currently running 4 Sunlight supply Reef Optix 1 reflectors. The two outside ones have Hamilton 14k 250w bulbs that I run for about 8 hours. The two inner reflectors have Iwaski 6500k 400w bulbs that I run for an hour and a half a day. The problem is I have major shade problems in the tank. The two outside bulbs I run most of the time do a decent job of lighting the tank but the two in the middle only light the middle as I cannot spread the reflectors out far enough since the tank is a little less than 6' long. I am wondering what people would recommend I change this to. I was thinking of changing all of it out for 3 x 250w 14k hamilton bulbs on Lumen bright reflectors but is that enough for a 32" Tall tank? Or should I just go with 2 x 400w and call it a day? Any thoughts? Thanks!!

[coryjones]

2 are not going to do it for sps if you keep them up high in the tank 250w will work but anything under 24" you are going to have to step up to 3 400w like i have.

[martinphillip03]

What type of corals do you have? What type of corals do you want to have? Will you be keeping clams?

Marty

Originally posted by chicken
I am looking at redoing my lighting setup on my SPS system. The tank is 68" long x 24" deep x 32" Tall. I am currently running 4 Sunlight supply Reef Optix 1 reflectors. The two outside ones have Hamilton 14k 250w bulbs that I run for about 8 hours. The two inner reflectors have Iwaski 6500k 400w bulbs that I run for an hour and a half a day. The problem is I have major shade problems in the tank. The two outside bulbs I run most of the time do a decent job of lighting the tank but the two in the middle only light the middle as I cannot spread the reflectors out far enough since the tank is a little less than 6' long. I am wondering what people would recommend I change this to. I was thinking of changing all of it out for 3 x 250w 14k hamilton bulbs on Lumen bright reflectors but is that enough for a 32" Tall tank? Or should I just go with 2 x 400w and call it a day? Any thoughts? Thanks!!

[Typhon]

I have friend that is currently only running 4 over his 84"Lx72"x24"H tank and they look good. He has them about 18" above the water line and running 250w. I was planning on raising mine about 20"-24" depending on spread and running 400w 12K reeflux.

I do see some dark spots, that is why I want to go with 400w and raise them higher. Also planning on using a 4x T5 48" as supplements.

What do you guys think?

Originally posted by melev
I'm thinking you'd need four Large ones, with the bulbs 18" off the water. Maybe staggered slightly. Three seems like a stretch, but Jim would probably be the best person to answer that.

[chicken]

I plan to have a wide variety of different SPS's. I would like to eventually put a clam or two in the tank but if that means running 400 watt bulbs vs 250 watt bulbs I'll forgo the clams as my electricity bill between this system and the 600g is ridiculous already.

The tank is mostly just frags right now as I just setup this system. It used to be my old FOWLR system but has been empty of any corals and fish for the last two years. I have kept it running the entire time just nothing in it. Thanks

Originally posted by martinphillip03
What type of corals do you have? What type of corals do you want to have? Will you be keeping clams?

Marty

[tas5tas]

Just ordered my lumenbrights, dimmable ballasts, and reeflux 12k today from Mike at Reef Specialty. I hope they look as good as every claims and I hope my growth is good as well. I'll have actinic supplementation via an Icecap 660 and 2 VHO actinic bulbs.

[JRaquatics]

Congrats on your new lighting set up. You will be more than ecstatic with the look and the results. Just remember to acclimate all your livestock to your new lighting via short photo periods and or extended heights.

[VaderWS6]

Originally posted by JRaquatics
Congrats on your new lighting set up. You will be more than ecstatic with the look and the results. Just remember to acclimate all your livestock to your new lighting via short photo periods and or extended heights.

Yup, be VERY careful about acclimating your reef to these reflectors! One of my sps colonies partially bleached within 2 hours under my Lumenbright minis. I was running overdriven XM 10k 250watt SE's which are extremely bright to begin with, but still be careful. I had to switch to Radium 20k's because the XM 10k's would have killed most of my sps. Even at a couple hours a day things continued to get worse. Everything is doing well under the Radiums though.

[fas917]

Guys,

I am in the market for new MH setup for my new 30L x 24w x 24h tank. I am liking this 12k setup. Can you please suggest a setup combo for my tank? Thanks.

[ds4x4]

sooo.. did anyone tell you this is a looong thread.. anyways..

72x24x30 220g going to have three reflectors with 250watt 10K SE reeflux on ice cap eballast. 17" is as high as i can go with these, should i be sticking with the minis? there was a little contradiction near the middle/end of this thread on which to use at 72"

I'm actually going to have a canopy but since this is in the basement i will cut the top of the canopy and the lights will be between the floor joists

[laud]

Originally posted by tas5tas
Will 250w bulbs with lumenbrights work on a 29" deep tank or do I need to get 400w bulbs instead. I plan on keeping mostly sps and will be using 20k bulbs.

I am using 250's on a 29" tall tank and my corals are growing quite quickly.

[ds4x4]

17" is bulb height from the top water, give or take an inch