I've seen a couple times now people saying that they use MH lighting with no actinic supplement. Am I missing something? In this case how long are the hallides run per day? I run my MH's (2 x 175) 6 hrs and my NO's (2x40) for 14 hrs. All 4 bulbs need to replaced (all ove a year old) and my recent job loss makes it difficult for me to spend 500$ on bulbs right at this moment... Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks.
Photoperiod
- Thread starter Expos Forever
- Start date
hi.
MH bulbs and NO bulbs are not going to cost you half a grand if you buy two of each. Unless you buy them at a LFS, who is willing to install them for you at your home or something.
To answer you question, MH does not ncessarily require supplement. However, most people who use a lower temperature bulb (e.g., 6500K) want to see more blue, and decide to supplement the color with actinic.
I run my 20,000 K MH 12 hours a day without supplement. FWIW
MH bulbs and NO bulbs are not going to cost you half a grand if you buy two of each. Unless you buy them at a LFS, who is willing to install them for you at your home or something.
To answer you question, MH does not ncessarily require supplement. However, most people who use a lower temperature bulb (e.g., 6500K) want to see more blue, and decide to supplement the color with actinic.
I run my 20,000 K MH 12 hours a day without supplement. FWIW
Problem is I live in Canada.
14000K German $179.00 CDN X 2 = 358.00
48 Inches 40 Watt $24.95 CDN X 2 = 50.00
TTL 408.00 CAD plus shipping and taxes (installation and in home bulb polishing not included :wink: ) And that is mail order. You don't want to know how much the LFS charges. If I order from the states the duties and exchange(1USD = approx 1.5CAD)and shipping really jack up the price. The Ushio 10k are reasonably priced though @ 65$USD each. Anybody running these alone (w/o actinincs) ?
hi.
Well, i guess I should be more observant and see that you are posting from Canada...
Anyway, there is nothing bad about running the 10,000 K bulb without the supplement. In fact, there is little between 10kK and 14kK, so you should ask yourself rather that extra 80% in price is worth it for the slightly bluer bulb. As I said, it is usually your personal preference, and you corals/fishes care very little about that small difference.
Well, i guess I should be more observant and see that you are posting from Canada...
Anyway, there is nothing bad about running the 10,000 K bulb without the supplement. In fact, there is little between 10kK and 14kK, so you should ask yourself rather that extra 80% in price is worth it for the slightly bluer bulb. As I said, it is usually your personal preference, and you corals/fishes care very little about that small difference.
i ran both 6.5k, and 10k bulbs w/o any actinic lighting, and the corals did just fine...
the actinic is for you, not for the corals.both the 6.5 and 10k bulbs have the PAR needed to keep corals happy and thriving.
fwiw-after i removed the actinics i originally used w/the 6.5k's, and shortened the photoperiod to 8-10, instead of 12 hrs., all of my nuisance algae went away in my 75, and my corals were none the worse for the wear
when i set up my 46 bow-i used the 10k bulbs, no actinics and also an 8-10 hr. photoperiod.had no nuisance algae from the beginning(though i'm sure that wasn't the only limiting factor :wink: )
the actinic is for you, not for the corals.both the 6.5 and 10k bulbs have the PAR needed to keep corals happy and thriving.
fwiw-after i removed the actinics i originally used w/the 6.5k's, and shortened the photoperiod to 8-10, instead of 12 hrs., all of my nuisance algae went away in my 75, and my corals were none the worse for the wear
when i set up my 46 bow-i used the 10k bulbs, no actinics and also an 8-10 hr. photoperiod.had no nuisance algae from the beginning(though i'm sure that wasn't the only limiting factor :wink: )
I run my 20K 400 watt 12 hours/ day. No suplementation whatsoever. Reason is less electricity expense and much less replacement cost per year. With the 20K bulbs I don't feel I need ot supplement to get any and all colors to show. I stagger the on process so the first goes on and the rest 1 hour apart. The go off the same way.
Your 2 NO bulbs are only for your viewing pleasure so leave them in until they burn out (3 Years or so). Just replace the halides. IMO Ushio 10,000K is a good choice (AB's are too) however I would run them at least 8-9 hours no less if you are keeping high light SPS corals. I shortend my halide lighting period this summer to 7 hours and several of my Acropora sp. corals lost the coloration in the tips and the growth slowed. Many others were unchanged though. When I increased the halide lighting period back to 9 hours the bright colors returned to the tips (I have since increased it to 10 hours but I haven't seen much change).
Regards,
Kevin
Regards,
Kevin
Thank you all for your responses.
To make along story short I've been battling a cyano bloom on my (substrate mainly) for a while. DSB set up about a month.(system 3 yrs old) Only on areas visible to lighting(not in caves,overhangs etc...).Reason for setting up a DSB in the first place. No other nuisance algae at all. Nitrates, Phosphates,etc... negligible. Tons of flow. Skimmer functioning well. Hard to tell if I'm winning or not,if I am it's going slow. The point is I'm figuring by process of elimination it has to be the lighting. Don't old fluorescents promote algae growth? don't know about cyano? If I can burn fresh MH's alone I can at least eliminate lighting as a possible cause. Any other comments would be appreciated.
To make along story short I've been battling a cyano bloom on my (substrate mainly) for a while. DSB set up about a month.(system 3 yrs old) Only on areas visible to lighting(not in caves,overhangs etc...).Reason for setting up a DSB in the first place. No other nuisance algae at all. Nitrates, Phosphates,etc... negligible. Tons of flow. Skimmer functioning well. Hard to tell if I'm winning or not,if I am it's going slow. The point is I'm figuring by process of elimination it has to be the lighting. Don't old fluorescents promote algae growth? don't know about cyano? If I can burn fresh MH's alone I can at least eliminate lighting as a possible cause. Any other comments would be appreciated.
I wouldn't worry too much about the cynobacteria. In 60-75 more days it will dissapear in a couple of days when the DSB kicks in (IME). I run 2 year old VHO's over my refugium the last 19 months without a sign of cynobacteria. I did have it in the main tank from 3-6 months when the tank was new. I just let it run it's course. Suddenly over the period of 2-3 days it all disappeared.
HTH,
Kevin
HTH,
Kevin
I'm guessing your tank is 48" since your NO are that length. If thats the case maybe you should run just one 400w bulb. Iwasaki 6500k are cheap; and they have just enough spread to cover a 4' tank.
I've been running that for two years now.
1x400w bulb 100$
48 Inches 40 Watt $24.95 CDN X 2 = 50.00
Thats 150$ much better then the 400$ you originally quoted. Even with the cost of a new ballast its still cheaper. If you can trade up.. you can save $$ there also
The is barely any price difference in bulbs as the wattage increases.
BTW: I'm reference jl's website for prices... I'm sure if you look around you can find cheaper deals.
I've been running that for two years now.
1x400w bulb 100$
48 Inches 40 Watt $24.95 CDN X 2 = 50.00
Thats 150$ much better then the 400$ you originally quoted. Even with the cost of a new ballast its still cheaper. If you can trade up.. you can save $$ there also
The is barely any price difference in bulbs as the wattage increases.
BTW: I'm reference jl's website for prices... I'm sure if you look around you can find cheaper deals.
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