A quick shot of new canopy and SOME of our new lighting

[dakar]

I got the canopy about 90% finished, painted and sealed the inside, mounted the new reflectors, and wired up the 2 250w Iwasaki's, pulled off all the PC lighing for now (gotta hack the ballasts and endcaps and grab the bulbs for now out of it tommorrow to mount in there. I'm going to order new PC bulbs next week

What a difference the Iwasaki's make... thought we'd share a pic, don't mind the coral all sleeping, it was late and the lights had already gone out for the day, but just couldn't resist firing them up. Can't wait for the 400w ballast to show up Monday. This is with a 250w on each side with no actinic/blue supplementation for now. I'm sold, I think it looks great, and the shadows on the center should go away when the 400w gets fired up for the center.

The difference is night and day to us, love the sparling effects of the pin point light sources, and the yellow tint I've read others complaining about is every so slight, but still needs a bit of supplementation.



Let us know what you think. I'll post again once we add the rest of the lights fired up.

[davejnz]

looks great to me too,white and bright.Prepare for lots of growth but start acclimation slowly.I like the screen method.
Before you order your PC bulbs,check ahsupply.com for there reflectors and bulb prices are competitive too.Those parabloic reflectors are the best thing you can do to a PC, IME.

[Whoyah]

Looken good. Man, with that 400 added in you should be lighting up half the county.

[BUGZME]

Looks great! Metal halide is the only way to go.

[Reef_Angel]

I just asked Dave why in the world he posted that shot? That looks awful! lol It looks like our tank is dead. He just looked at the picture and went.....ewwww..... it doesn't look at all like it looked to him last night either. That's what happens when you're tired!! He isn't near done yet, but he does have the canopy on and only the (2) 250w bulbs in there. The real beauty of it all is with the canopy on and closed with the two bulbs burned. There is such a beautiful shimmering effect to the water, but it's still a little yellow yet. We were so tired when we actually turned the lights on for the first time. The poor corals were already put to bed for the night, and you can tell all the fish were sleeping too.
Monday the ballast for the 400w comes and that will finish that part off. Gotta get those blues in there too. I just love the actinics and we are getting new ones so they ought to be nice and fresh! Dave has done a beautiful job with this project. There's a few more trim things to do with it, and when it's done, I'll be sure that we take a picture of the ENTIRE stand in all it's glory! One thing about having a husband like Dave is.... if I can dream up an idea or want for something that seems impossible to be made, all I have to do is describe it to him and it will be mine! I guess I hooked the right guy in the fishing hole! :)

[BUGZME]

I am assuming you are running 10k bulbs. The color is very white and crisp.

[dakar]

Nope... they are not even really halides, Mercury Vapor lamps (Iwasaki), rated at 6500K, but by being pushed with magnetic ballasts their actual output is somewhere around 7600K. I was expecting to see a lot more yellow tint from the lower color temp, but I'm very pleased so far, nice and crisp, just the slightest hint of yellow.

Angel is right that is a lousy pic, taken and posted while half asleep, I swear it looked a lot better to me last night. But they've been running since 10am this morning, and all I can say is WOW! Everything is responding fantastically, haven't seen things so puffed up and polyps are extended further than we've ever seen, even the shrooms that were always just sort of laying around are standing tall and pimpled up.

[Reptoreef]

SWwEET... Careful not to sunburn those corals!!!

[dakar]

The ballast for the 400 finally arrived about two hours ago.... already hooked up and firing away.

Geez, I need a warning label to put on the front of the canapoy now....
Caution: Opening while lights are powered will cause instant blindness!

Snapped a few pics but need to run to a couple of appt's so we'll pull them out of the camera and upload them later. Really chased away any shadows in there. Can't tell there is more light in the center than on the sides, it looks very evenly lit.

Ended up ordering 4 new 65W 7100K Blue PC bulbs, they should be here wednesday.... we'll see if they are enough.