Opinions on the 6500K Iwasaki 250W's

[dakar]

As I'm still gathering info and deciding which way I want to go with the new tank (180) as far as MH lighting goes, I'm starting to lean towards using 3 6500K Iwasaki 250W mogul base setups, using Advanced remote ballasts, (total about $85 per bulb, ballast and fixture setup). Seems like the cheap route to go but still get great PAR and I can deal with the slightly yellow tint easy enough by adding 6x65W Actinic PC's from our old 260W corallife fixture and add another ballast to power up an additional 2 65W PC's.

Seems to be the most cost effective to get a pretty fair amount of lighting going. If my research has been in track the Iwasaki's will even fire properly using 250W MV ballasts which could save a few more $$$.

Thoughts and opinions on these?

[Reptoreef]

They are awesome... you'll definitely need act suppliments(try an equal amount of act blue's and act 03's)... They claim to have the overall best growth spectrum for coral.

[davejnz]

agreed,a great bulb with tons of PAR,be careful when acclimating as they are bright.I loved mine,wish i never sold it.If you can get ahold of some T5 ATI blue+
they would be perfect in balancing out the color and the 450nm T5 will complient the Saki@420 quite nicely.If I'm not happy with my new XM,I'll be going back to sakis.The Advance ballasts are so cheap too.Not to efficient and they put out alot of heat but very durable,I can get them free at work from time to time.Think i still got one laying around.

[dakar]

The price of the ballast's is what really caught my eye, $30 a pop, how can you go wrong? The specs quoted on the Iwasaki bulbs appear second only to the XM's in some aspects, but at less than 1/2 the price I'll give them a whirl.

Not figuring the heat will be too much of an issue from the ballasts if I mount them behind the stand, I've got a couple 18" heatsinks from an old amplifier burried in a junk bin, they should serve well to keep them cool.

The MH's should really shake things up in the tank, right now just got 260w of PC (10K/Actinic 03), and 240w NO 6500K, figurung I'll have to bring the MH's up one at a time for very gradually increasing photo periods and try not to send all of the critters into a blind shock, not to mention I'd rather do my best to avoid an all out algae/diatom bloom.

Thanks for the input! Good to hear I should be on the right track, need to really kick things in gear here and get the canopy built so I'll have a place to hang them. Might even get the mongo wier box done this weekend.

[davejnz]

The specs quoted on the Iwasaki bulbs appear second only to the XM's in some aspects, but at less than 1/2 the price I'll give them a whirl.

The "sakis" have more PAR than XM from what i've read,Eric Borneman uses them exclusively and claims he can ge 2yrs.they have a very balanced spectrum even though they appear yellowish.You'll need lots of actinic supplementation,T5 blues would work well.Although 96wPC blue's housed in parabolic reflectors are pretty intense too.bulb life isn't that great though.either way,I think the "saki" has proven itself as the best bulb for growth.[quote]The specs quoted on the Iwasaki bulbs appear second only to the XM's in some aspects, but at less than 1/2 the price I'll give them a whirl.

[davejnz]

What kind of reflector do you plan on using?What are your tanks dimensions?

[dakar]

I was planning on using a stainless parabolic type, 180 degree. The tank is 72x24x24 (180G), a couple of 400's would proabably do it, but its got two large braces across the top dividing the surface equally into three sections so figuring better to use three fixtures to avoid shadows (and cooking the plastic braces).

24" deep seems to be right at the mid point between 250's and 400's, leaning towards the 250's so we can still keep all of our shrooms and other softies torwards the bottom in slightly reduced lighting, but keep other more light demanding critters in the top 1/2 of the tank (at least well above that 50% loss at 19" of water).

[davejnz]

sounds like a fine plan,I think the 250's would be fine.Those sakis sure are bright.What kind of actinics do you plan on using?

[dakar]

I'd like to be able to reuse the guts from my PC fixture, and just add two more 65w PC's, I really like the coloring from the Corallife 03 Actinics now mixed with the 10K's, hoping they'll color close to the same with the 6500K 'sakis'.

[davejnz]

basically,with flourescent supplementation,ideally you would choose a bulb that compliments the spectral peak of your halide.Sakis peak@420nm and most 03's peak at 420 as well.The blue T5's and Pc's have peaks@450 and are usually brighter than 03's/actinics.They compliment the MH well IMO by providing better balance in that end of spectrum(purple/blue)I had some Corallife PC's before and liked them too,not sure on their spectrum though.

[dakar]

The Corallife 03's are a bit more towards the purple end of the spectrum, ~470nm. Actually closer to UV than the T5's I've seen, helps the fluorescing critters show off that much more color. I'd really rather deal with the 21" PC's over messing around with oversizing the canopy to fit 72" tubes (or staggering 48 inchers), the mental picture I'm drawing just lets things lay out a lot easier in the canopy using 6 PC's.

[Reef_Angel]

This is the part of the tank work that I'm glad I don't handle! Between the two of us, Dave and I make an excellent team. I enjoy feeding, maintaining, cleaning etc, while Dave likes the setup, sump, lighting etc. Shopping together is dangerous!!!! We want everything we see, and can manage to talk each other into buying it when were really looking for the strength from the other one to say "maybe we should wait". It never happens! We bring home many goodies and then just cringe when we look at the damage done to the checking account! :shock:

The lighting is very important to me and making sure everybody is in a place in the tank that pleases them. Now that we moved everything into the 180G., until we get the lighting done permanently, it's a bit of a guessing game as to where every coral will be happiest. Lots of difference between living in 55g and 180g, that's for sure. So far, everything seems happy where I have it so far. I'll have to get some pictures up soon. It will be fun to watch it grow through photo's too. Thanks for all your advice everyone. We do appreciate it!

[davejnz]

sounds good,have you checked out the reflectors for PC's at AHsupply.com,pretty good IMO,a bit bulky but they can make your PC really shine

[jerryc]

Have you considered using VHO act you can get by with less lamps and or to
me the best act out their.

[dakar]

Jerry, yes I looked at going VHO, just don't want to mess around with the long tubes if I can avoid it.

[davejnz]

Dakar,If you re-use your PC's,I'd strongly suggest a parabolic PC reflector like i mentioned in the above link.I used 2x96w PC's with them and they were blinding when looking at them.