Gualala Robotics Light Rail

gakalh · 12/10/2006, 07:55 PM

I've been looking for any previous discussion of the Gualala Robotics Light Rail www.lightrail3.com which is used to move your MH lights back and forth along the length of your tank. That Fish Place, which is pretty close to me, recently installed them above some of their coral sales tanks.

I've been thinking about doing it on a 265 gallon 84" x 30" x 24" deep tank that I am in the process of setting up. It can be viewed from both sides and I have 3 - 250 watt MH down the center with VHO Actinics down each side and a handful of Lunar lights for good measure.

Gualala's web site suggests the lights are 1.6 times as effective. So that suggests I would only need two MH instead of three. That seems to be about the reduction in fixtures that That Fish Place did.

Can anyone say what the advantage is other than some savings in electric?

At That Fish Place I think it leaves their tanks kind of dim (as far as viewing pleasure) but they're also not running any flourescents at all over those tanks.

seandanekind · 12/11/2006, 02:27 PM

I currently have 4 250W ReefOptix3's on an aluminum bar. At either end, the bar is attached by pulleys to two 36" light rails. The bar is parallel to the front of the tank. The light rails are perpendicular.

The rails move independantly of each other, so the whole rig doesn't always move all the way to the front or the back - which is pretty cool because you get some neat shadow effects.

I've had great success raising SPS under this system.

In my experience, with the relatively narrow spread of the Reefoptix and PFO HQI pendants, you should really only plan to move the pendants about 24" to cover an 18" x 30" area. much more than that, and you need supplimentation to fill in the shadows (unless you like them).

If you have Lumenarc or LumenMax reflectos, you could probably stretch it to a 2ft x 3 ft area.

FYI:
I'm currently changing my setup to use the heavy duty Light Rail 5 (up to 90 lbs) perpendicular to the tank, and a 72" Light Rail 3.5 mounted to the trolly of the LR5 with 3 LumenMax2 pendants (400W Radium, 250W Ushio 10K, and another 400W Radium). The aluminum pendants are light enough that the rails will not be stressed at all...

The LR5 will move about 24" front to back. The lights on the LR3.5 will also move about 24" left to right.

The majority of the photoperiod will be the Radiums. I'm going to attempt to get good coverage over a 36"x36" area with the new light rig, then add the Ushio kicking in for a 3 hour mid-day with a little different spectrum.

Here's a side shot of the old rig with 4 Phoenix bulbs...

12/10/2006, 07:55 PM	#1
gakalh Premium Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: New Oxford, PA Posts: 9	Gualala Robotics Light Rail I've been looking for any previous discussion of the Gualala Robotics Light Rail www.lightrail3.com which is used to move your MH lights back and forth along the length of your tank. That Fish Place, which is pretty close to me, recently installed them above some of their coral sales tanks. I've been thinking about doing it on a 265 gallon 84" x 30" x 24" deep tank that I am in the process of setting up. It can be viewed from both sides and I have 3 - 250 watt MH down the center with VHO Actinics down each side and a handful of Lunar lights for good measure. Gualala's web site suggests the lights are 1.6 times as effective. So that suggests I would only need two MH instead of three. That seems to be about the reduction in fixtures that That Fish Place did. Can anyone say what the advantage is other than some savings in electric? At That Fish Place I think it leaves their tanks kind of dim (as far as viewing pleasure) but they're also not running any flourescents at all over those tanks.

12/11/2006, 02:27 PM	#2
seandanekind Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Columbus, Ohio Posts: 1,302	I currently have 4 250W ReefOptix3's on an aluminum bar. At either end, the bar is attached by pulleys to two 36" light rails. The bar is parallel to the front of the tank. The light rails are perpendicular. The rails move independantly of each other, so the whole rig doesn't always move all the way to the front or the back - which is pretty cool because you get some neat shadow effects. I've had great success raising SPS under this system. In my experience, with the relatively narrow spread of the Reefoptix and PFO HQI pendants, you should really only plan to move the pendants about 24" to cover an 18" x 30" area. much more than that, and you need supplimentation to fill in the shadows (unless you like them). If you have Lumenarc or LumenMax reflectos, you could probably stretch it to a 2ft x 3 ft area. FYI: I'm currently changing my setup to use the heavy duty Light Rail 5 (up to 90 lbs) perpendicular to the tank, and a 72" Light Rail 3.5 mounted to the trolly of the LR5 with 3 LumenMax2 pendants (400W Radium, 250W Ushio 10K, and another 400W Radium). The aluminum pendants are light enough that the rails will not be stressed at all... The LR5 will move about 24" front to back. The lights on the LR3.5 will also move about 24" left to right. The majority of the photoperiod will be the Radiums. I'm going to attempt to get good coverage over a 36"x36" area with the new light rig, then add the Ushio kicking in for a 3 hour mid-day with a little different spectrum. Here's a side shot of the old rig with 4 Phoenix bulbs...