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Post by jasonandsarah on Aug 13, 2015 10:16:10 GMT -5
Wanted to throw a question or there for everyone to chime in on. I'm thinking about adding 2 150w Halides to my lighting fixture. My thinking is that if I buy dimmable ballast I don't have to run them at full power and I'll have the best of all worlds. Am I crazier then I think for even contimplating this? I'm already getting great growth and everything seems happy but I'm just always wondering if I can improve in these areas.
At the very least I'm going to add 2 more 54w T5's. Would sticking with 2 extra T5's be a better option?
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Post by fermentedhiker on Aug 13, 2015 20:33:48 GMT -5
Any idea what your getting for par from your current setup? Since your talking dimmable I don't see any harm.
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Post by jasonandsarah on Aug 13, 2015 21:47:34 GMT -5
I have no idea on the par. Always read par is really hard to read with Leds. I adjust my lights to what my corals like and increase intensity till they don't  |
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Post by fermentedhiker on Aug 13, 2015 22:18:25 GMT -5
Yeah you're right it can be tricky to judge.
I was thinking dimmable MH with BML super actinic and purple wave strips might be the ultimate for control and tweaking fun.
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Post by Rakahrd Eastbrook, Me. on Aug 15, 2015 10:23:29 GMT -5
wow it sounds way too complicated to me.
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Post by moulton712 on Aug 17, 2015 8:01:29 GMT -5
If it were me I'd just add the t5's. You have enough light. Get some ati true atinic. Low par but will bring in crazy color up ability.
If I our corals are growing like crazy I wouldn't change much. You might have found your tanks sweet spot. Adding true atinic with uv won't hurt.
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Post by jasonandsarah on Aug 17, 2015 8:21:17 GMT -5
I am running an Ati true actinic and Ati blue plus until about a week ago. I switched out the true actinic for a Ati coral plus. If it doesn't work out well I'll just switch it back.
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Post by Admin (RS) on Aug 17, 2015 19:20:41 GMT -5
true signs of a reef addict: things are going well with your setup, and you just can't help but tinker! i'm reefless right now, but that was always me too. we get so accustomed to throwing money into our tanks that when things are going smoothly, we have an impulse to put more $ into it haha... jason you may need a reefing intervention  |
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Post by jasonandsarah on Aug 18, 2015 5:30:25 GMT -5
true signs of a reef addict: things are going well with your setup, and you just can't help but tinker! i'm reefless right now, but that was always me too. we get so accustomed to throwing money into our tanks that when things are going smoothly, we have an impulse to put more $ into it haha... jason you may need a reefing intervention I definitely need a reefing intervention! But I don't want one!! Lol EVER! I guess my only gripe is I'm trying to fix shadowing. Now that my acro colonies are getting bigger and bigger (I know probably shouldn't complain) I get shadowing on the undersides. This is my biggest and mainly only gripe with Leds. I do need to get the wide angle lenses right off but I just don't know if that'll make a huge difference? I'd almost rather add T5's but they're so long and take up so much room I'm gonna have to really bust out my thinking cap to get 2 more 54w T5's into my fixture and actually have the light go into the tank. As it is the 2 I have up now are on the very edges of my tank and higher off the water then I'd like. |
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Post by ryansweatt2004 on Aug 18, 2015 7:37:57 GMT -5
Unfortunately your going to get some shadowing no matter wat you do. Well unless you attach lights to the sides of your tank too.
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Post by jasonandsarah on Aug 18, 2015 7:53:13 GMT -5
Unfortunately your going to get some shadowing no matter wat you do. Well unless you attach lights to the sides of your tank too. I get that for sure! But do you think your Radions have as good of spread as your MH used to? Or having a 8 bulb t5? I think to get the spread I really want on my tank I'd need to turn my Radions sideways and 2 more if I kept stock lenses and 1 more with wide angle lenses. 2 turned sideways and 1 in the middle going the right way. |
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