Made a purchasing mistake...can this plan fix it?

[phillybean]

I'm in the process of upgrading my 90 gallon to a 220 gallon (30" deep). I'm a bit old school, I was out of the Reef game for about 8 years before starting up the 90 about 2 years ago.

While still trying to figure out the lighting plan, a deal on a old 72" 3 x MH and 4 x PC fixture popped up locally. Good deal, my plan was to replace the PC's with ReefBrites and call it a day. I've always ran MH on my old tanks and have been happy with the color and growth I got so wanted to go back to MH for the new tank.

Sadly, once I picked it up, I realized that it is only 150 Watt's and not 250. It will be on a mixed reef that is fairly SPS heavy. The fixture does sit on the tank and the legs are fairly short, so the bulbs will be close to the water. I do not want to stack rock any more than 18-20" up. My concern is that 150 watt's won't be enough light.

So to fix that, I'm thinking of using my existing 48" Sunlight Supply 8 bulb T5 fixture as a donor. Use the ballasts and end caps, put 4 80 Watt Coral Plus bulbs in the new Fixture where the PC's used to be, run 14k Phoenix HQI bulbs and then use two 72" Blue Reefbrites to get the blue look I'm after. Will this work?

 

[xabo]

Is it possible to swap out the 150W halide ballasts for say 250W?

 

[phillybean]

Is it possible to swap out the 150W halide ballasts for say 250W?

I believe so, would take a bit of work though

 

[George81]

@phillybean i may have 2 ice cap 250 watt mh ballast. I would have to go digging through my parents basement for them. But I’m fairly certain 2 ballasts plus the fixtures. You can have them if they haven’t been tossed. Give me a week or so to go looking for them. you pay shipping ballast and fixtures if you want them are free..
let me know. I would rather see someone benefit from them than have them collect dust. If they are still in existence
coming from southern Ontario.

 

[phillybean]

@phillybean i may have 2 ice cap 250 watt mh ballast. I would have to go digging through my parents basement for them. But I’m fairly certain 2 ballasts plus the fixtures. You can have them if they haven’t been tossed. Give me a week or so to go looking for them. you pay shipping ballast and fixtures if you want them are free..
let me know. I would rather see someone benefit from them than have them collect dust. If they are still in existence
coming from southern Ontario.

That would be amazing, thank you so much.

 

[A. grandis]

Put some pictures of the fixture so we have an idea of what you've got.
Basically you can just change the wires and DE sockets for 250W, and get the ballasts, of course.

 

[phillybean]

Put some pictures of the fixture so we have an idea of what you've got.
Basically you can just change the wires and DE sockets for 250W, and get the ballasts, of course.

After some research, I discovered it is a Coralife Aqualight Pro

 

[phillybean]

Spent a few minutes tearing into it a bit, look's fairly simple. I'm not sure if these igniters will work for a 250 Watt bulb or if they will need to be replaced as well.

 

[Pntbll687]

I just got one of these as well a few months ago.

I think replacing the pc bulbs with t5 would be enough for most sps. But replacing the ballasts for 250w would pretty much guarantee you'll get enough light

 

[phillybean]

I just got one of these as well a few months ago.

I think replacing the pc bulbs with t5 would be enough for most sps. But replacing the ballasts for 250w would pretty much guarantee you'll get enough light

Nice to see LPS at the bottom of your tank looking great, is that a 24" deep or 30" deep tank?

 

[Pntbll687]

Nice to see LPS at the bottom of your tank looking great, is that a 24" deep or 30" deep tank?

24" it's a 180g.

They grow very well on the sand.

I'll probably switch to 250w at some point to get sps dominant, but right now it's lps and montipora