700 Gallon MH Lighting Help

[Moonrock]

After hours and hours of research and no answers I figured I would ask the community for help.

I’m building a new home so it’s time for a new fish room and tank. With that said, I need help with lighting for the main display. Below is a diagram of the fish room.

This tank will be a bare bottom SPS peninsula tank with dimensions of 102x48x32. The bottom and left side will be visible from my basement and the backside will be visible from inside the fish room.

being an SPS junkie, I want color and growth.. I decided to go with some Metal Halides for the growth and some Radion G5 LEDs for coloration. The LEDs would be a big angled.

It seems IMPOSSIBLE to get Hamilton fixtures at the moment so I found a company called GrowLite that makes fixtures I could use. I would like to use the 400w Radium 20k bulb with this setup but can’t seem to find the right type of ballast. I still don’t even know if the fixture’s will work but they run the Mogul socket so my guess is that it would work.

I’m debating on 6 of these fixtures:

OG-315-E CMH Grow Light Reflector

OG-315-E CMH Grow Light Reflector

growlite.com

Or

using 3 of these fixtures:

OG Air-Cooled Grow Light Reflector

OG Air-Cooled Grow Light Reflector

growlite.com

Can someone point me in the right direction on what type of ballist to get?

Growlite also make a 315W ballast but the bulb is 400w. Would that work? What’s the Pro’s/Con’s? Here’s the ballast they have.

315W CMH Electronic Ballast

315W CMH Electronic Ballast

growlite.com

is there a better option to run these fixtures?

would these fixtures even work?

any help is appreciated!

side note: the fish room door opens out into the basement instead of into the fish room now.

can’t wait to start the build thread soon once our house is done being built. During all my research I couldn’t find much info on YouTube about fish rooms so I might document the entire process. The room will have floor drains, pvc walls, an air exchanger, a dehumidifier and the whole 9 yards.

 

[A. grandis]

I would wait for the Cozumel to be available again. Hamilton fixtures have the sockets mounted horizontally and they are actual aquarium fixtures designed to work over salt water tanks, resistant to the constant evaporation with lenses and so on.
The fixtures you found have their bulbs mounted vertically and they are designed for plants, using ceramic metal halide systems. I'm not sure if they would be the best option. The worse thing is to get something to try and in a year or so you find they were not what you expected. At lest Hamilton is well made for our purposes and will give you the very best customer service there is.
I hope they can have the Cozumel back in stock. Lot's f people have been looking for that pendant.

Cozumel Sun Pendant System

You can use electronic ballast with the 400W Radiums. The recommended ballast is M135/M155, but most people just use the electronic ones.
Maybe @Hamilton Tech will see this thread and let us know...

Nice plan!

 

[Moonrock]

I dont get my new house until June 1st so I can wait, keren and bob wont deliver the tank until Mid June as well...

I was told by a couple vendors Hamilton is wayyy behind and might be months before they get any stock out.

 

[Moonrock]

I can say this... I’ve been talking to growlite and Martin over there KNOW’s his stuff. A light genius... I did order one of each light already just to test them out. The big OG is air tight on the inside and has glass on the bottom. That’s why I liked that light. big if you look at my drawings it would only require 3. That drawing is an exact scale of the sizing.

Is it true if I keep the bulb cool it will give me a longer life/better performance? I read that on another r2r thread. I have 10ft ceilings and the tank stand is 42” tall so the center of the tank is eye level.

lets see what hamilton says... I wouldn’t mind being a test dummy for a new fixture that might benefit the hobby.

any idea’s on ballasts?

 

[maroun.c]

Nice setup and plan.
would review the layout to possibly have a look directly on the DT when yuo first walk in from the door which adds to the wow factor, if that is possible.
I run a smaller tank yet same height 88x34x80 and use 3 halides in lumenbright pendants (DE here)
i run 3 halides staggered between 4 radion XR30s placed front to back. on your setup I'd assume 2 lines of 3 or even 4 halides if they fit and having 2 LEDs front to back on sides and on between halides.
I haven't measured par but get excelelnt growth and colors with only 250W halides so you migh tget away with those and be able to fit an additional smaller halide or else 3 with either 250 or 400W halides.
good luck with your build and looking forward to the build thread.

 

[Moonrock]

Nice setup and plan.
would review the layout to possibly have a look directly on the DT when yuo first walk in from the door which adds to the wow factor, if that is possible.
I run a smaller tank yet same height 88x34x80 and use 3 halides in lumenbright pendants (DE here)
i run 3 halides staggered between 4 radion XR30s placed front to back. on your setup I'd assume 2 lines of 3 or even 4 halides if they fit and having 2 LEDs front to back on sides and on between halides.
I haven't measured par but get excelelnt growth and colors with only 250W halides so you migh tget away with those and be able to fit an additional smaller halide or else 3 with either 250 or 400W halides.
good luck with your build and looking forward to the build thread.

88x34x80, is this a square style tank? Inches?

and thanks! I have to update the diagram to show the skimmer, sump and UV.

the sump is actually 96x30x30, advanced acrylics said it’s the biggest one they've done.

As far as UV, Skimmer, oZone, And Fluidized Sand Filter goes I went with RK2 systems. Pictures attached.

the 2 tanks on the right wall is my QT system with 2 separate sumps. This way I can QT multiple things at once. I plan on QT’ing EVERYTHING. Even clean up crew...

anyway, I’ll save the rest for

back to the lighting subject.

 

[Bpb]

I may be wrong but I don’t think CMH gear is compatible with standard and HQI stuff

Have you contacted reef brite? They’re pretty proud of their MH gear. Pendants are on the smaller side, but you’ll be running radions front and back so I don’t think coverage will be a problem

 

[Moonrock]

Reef Brite does have lights but they are 12-13” long by 6-8 wide... not much coverage for a 48” wide tank...

i did buy a Reef Brite ballast to try with the GrowLite pendents

 

[A. grandis]

I dont get my new house until June 1st so I can wait, keren and bob wont deliver the tank until Mid June as well...

I was told by a couple vendors Hamilton is wayyy behind and might be months before they get any stock out.

I can say this... I’ve been talking to growlite and Martin over there KNOW’s his stuff. A light genius... I did order one of each light already just to test them out. The big OG is air tight on the inside and has glass on the bottom. That’s why I liked that light. big if you look at my drawings it would only require 3. That drawing is an exact scale of the sizing.

Is it true if I keep the bulb cool it will give me a longer life/better performance? I read that on another r2r thread. I have 10ft ceilings and the tank stand is 42” tall so the center of the tank is eye level.

lets see what hamilton says... I wouldn’t mind being a test dummy for a new fixture that might benefit the hobby.

any idea’s on ballasts?

The more halide equipment available the better!! It would be great to test those fixtures, yes. They look good, but we need to consider that the bulbs we normally use for aquarium are placed horizontally in the fixtures and not all the bulbs would be able to run vertically. And yes, I think you would need to tell them to send you a fixture with the E40 socket for the Radium. Ceramic halides run on a different system altogether.
It would be so great if those guys decided to produce or adapt their current line to aquarium use. Thanks for finding them and trying their products!!!! Those fixtures do look good to me!! They could be one of the next companies we are waiting for!!!!!
You could also try the IceCap selectable 400W ballast. That is what most people are using nowadays.

400w Selectable Wattage Electronic Ballast

Metal Halide has been a staple in reef keeping for many years. Luckily technology is keeping up with one of the older methods of lighting reef tanks. The IceCap Electronic ballasts give the best of all worlds with remarkable energy efficiency compared to all other ballasts on the market today...

www.marinedepot.com

ReefBrite ballast will run the bulb using less energy than the most conventional ballasts (even the selectable electronic ones). I'm not sure how that would interfere when using the Radium. I've never tried the ReefBrite yet. Tullio said their ballast can "read" what bulb is connected to the ballast and adjust to it's need for optimal performance. He said any bulb can be connected and it will perform with excellent performance in terms of PAR, less eletricity. I guess you will let us know what you think soon in that regard. I've never used any of the ReefBrite equipment yet.
Can those guys make a fixture to install the bulb in the horizontal position?
They need to send you the fixture with the E40 socket for German Radium.

 

[A. grandis]

I wanted to get home and take pictures of the 400W Radium and burning position instructions for you.
Radium is a "p55" type in terms of burning position. That means the bulb needs to be used within 55° angle (up or down) of the horizontal position.
Most, if not all the bulbs we use for reef tanks need to be used in a horizontal position, like the Radium. So that fixture needs to be modified, if you really want to use it for your project.

 

[Moonrock]

Okay INTERESTING. Well they have Horizontal lamps,.. they have both actually.

We went into a big scientific discussion about lamps that are sideways and lamps that have the bulb set vertically and how each produces a certain amount of heat.

From research a lamp that goes in sideways runs hotter simply because the light is bouncing off the top wall warming it up. Thats when they decided to go vertical because light gets beamed straight down instead of creating heat. It makes sense to me..

 

[Moonrock]

They do have a sideways bulb lamp.

 

[zalick]

A few months back, Dave, at Hamilton, told me the Cozumel's would be in stock around March. You might just email him or call to see what the current status is.

They had a huge surge of orders from some public aquariums for the Cozumels.

 

[Moonrock]

A few months back, Dave, at Hamilton, told me the Cozumel's would be in stock around March. You might just email him or call to see what the current status is.

They had a huge surge of orders from some public aquariums for the Cozumels.

Can you send me contact info?

I wanted to get home and take pictures of the 400W Radium and burning position instructions for you.
Radium is a "p55" type in terms of burning position. That means the bulb needs to be used within 55° angle (up or down) of the horizontal position.
Most, if not all the bulbs we use for reef tanks need to be used in a horizontal position, like the Radium. So that fixture needs to be modified, if you really want to use it for your project.

Do you have any pictures of your setup? Im trying to find a way to slide out the light rack for maintenance and then be able to slide it back in... i dont want to get into the water to change a bulb on a 4ft wide tank.

 

[zalick]

Can you send me contact info?

Do you have any pictures of your setup? Im trying to find a way to slide out the light rack for maintenance and then be able to slide it back in... i dont want to get into the water to change a bulb on a 4ft wide tank.

Here is Dave's email. He's very responsive

[email protected]

 

[A. grandis]

Can you send me contact info?

Do you have any pictures of your setup? Im trying to find a way to slide out the light rack for maintenance and then be able to slide it back in... i dont want to get into the water to change a bulb on a 4ft wide tank.

Right now I have a Spectra over a 75gal. tank hanging from the ceiling and I don't need to touch it for maintenance.

There are many ways to facilitate the maintenance when taking the canopy out of the way. One of them is this:

I'm not sure how to get the equipment though. I simply hang mine from the ceiling and don't move them.
Melev has a slide out system. You should contact him for more details.

Contact Melev | Melev's Reef

www.melevsreef.com

Reef Addicts - Reef Addicts - Home

Our community knows precisely why blood, sweat and tears are salty, and always put reefkeeping first...

www.reefaddicts.com

Home | Melev's Reef

www.melevsreef.com

I'm sure you will be able to find some more examples online.

 

[Moonrock]

Here is Dave's email. He's very responsive

[email protected]

He responded back to my email in less then 5min.. pretty quick.

whats more popular?

Cozumel Sun Pendant Reflector

Cabo Sun Reflector

Will both of these work with the radium 400w 20k bulb?

 

[Bpb]

He responded back to my email in less then 5min.. pretty quick.

whats more popular?

Cozumel Sun Pendant Reflector

Cabo Sun Reflector

Will both of these work with the radium 400w 20k bulb?

Whichever one is physically larger

 

[jda]

Either can be popular depending on how you want them to spread... wide or deep.

If you are looking at 400w Radium, then consider the 250w Radium on m80 ballasts. They have nearly the same output with less electrical consumption:
Elec vs m135 by Doug Adams, on Flickr

One spikes more in the low 400 nanometer range and the other in the 450 range, but they both look pretty similar to me. I pretty much just use 250w HQI anymore since the output is so much at 330w instead of 400w, so a 20% savings, or so. 250w HQI is not 250 and is really around 330w for a real m80.

Lastly, go to ReefCentral and find Copp's thread in the SPS forum. Every big tank owner should read it... you can learn something that might help your build. I only have 240s now, but my general advice is to only take advice from people who have had big tanks because people who try and help that have only kept smaller tanks do not know that what they do does not really scale... I learned this the hard way a long time ago.

 

[Moonrock]

I live by copp, totally forgot to ask him for advice... i’ll text him tomorrow.