ratings on Hamilton HQI MH pendants

[Oceans Ferevh]

I'm investigating MH lighting systems right now. I was looking at Hamilton 250w 14K HQI ReefStar Pendant System. I would like to have it hooked up so that I could simulate moonlight, dawn, and daylight. So...I was also looking at maybe installing a PFO 1Watt Extreme LED Moon Light in the hood along with some power compact blue actinics. My 65 gallon is about 3 ft long by 2 ft wide by 1 3/4 ft deep (minus sand bed calculated in). Thoughts? Recommendations?

 

[spsmike]

400 watt 20k should work best for youI know you lose par with the 20k but with 400 watts you can afford a little par lose.

 

[Anonymous]

1 bulb or 2? 3ft may be hard to cover with 1. The 250's should work well.

 

[Entacmaea]

I am using 2x250 watt HQO DE pendants for my 70gallon (same dimensions as yours, about). Your 65 will probably have a center brace (?) so 2 bulbs I think would be better...

 

[spsmike]

Yes I am sorry I meant to say two....I would do 250 10k with pc actinic or 400 20k no pc actinic.

 

[Unarce]

I was looking at Hamilton 250w 14K HQI ReefStar Pendant System.

I think two 250W bulbs will be perfect for your 65g, since you're talking double-end. I do want to comment on the 14K Hamiltons. One of the LFS has a display with 4 or 6 Hamilton 14K DE. I do love the ice blue color, but honestly, they are just about as bright as a burned in XM 20K DE. I really question the quality of the Hamilton bulb, and the company refused to tell me who manufacturers it for them and from where. IMO, you get what you pay for when it comes to bulbs and suggest you look into the higher-end brands, especially when it comes to higher kelvin ratings.

Good luck :wink: !

 

[Len]

250W "HQI" double ended bulbs are very bright, but unfortunately they have poor coverage compared to mogul tubes. So I'd recommend either two 250W DE or a single 400W SE.

The rest of the lighting sounds fine. I use VHO for my actinics, but the modern PC actinics are great too.

Hamilton doesn't manufacturer their own bulbs as far as I know. Many have said their 14K are rebadged German 10K.

 

[Anonymous]

I have one 250W HQI 10K currently on my 58 (no brace). I also have 2 95W VHO actinics.

I am considering adding another MH but it would be allot easier for me to add 2 more VHO's since I have the ballast only running 2 now.

Would 2 VHO's make a difference?
_________________
grand daddy purple photos

 

[Entacmaea]

Yeah, it will make a difference, that is another 190 watts! I would probably add two more 50/50 bulbs, rather than adding more actinics.

 

[Oceans Ferevh]

I’m having a hard time deciding on the best set up. I’m in college and need to make a decision that will be as efficient and economical as possible. If I use 20,000K lamps I won’t need actinics, correct? If I go with the 250W x 2 and no actinics that’s 500W together. Len you said that I could go with one 400W SE over my 75 Gallon tank. Could I just use a 20,000K bulb in that and get away with just running the MH? I need to think about energy costs as well. Unfortunately I can’t make the wrong decision on this one, because it has to work for a long time. I have quite a few softies in my tank along with LPS. I want to keep clams and SPS eventually.

If I go with the single 400W I was looking at this one

http://www.championlighting.com/e/env/0 ... :p400_horz

I was looking at these two if I go with two 250W with 20,000K

http://www.hellolights.com/ocli25hqiame.html

http://www.championlighting.com/e/env/0 ... :p250_horz

Or, if I go with 250-400W at 10,000K or less with actinics then these
http://www.championlighting.com/e/env/0 ... main:pp250

http://www.championlighting.com/e/env/0 ... main:pp400

Are there any other units or ideas that I’ve overlooked that would be better? I’m also confused over which MH bulb brands are better. I have no experience in this field either. Iwasaki, Ushio, Coralife, Radium, Aqualine which is more reliable?

 

[Oceans Ferevh]

I thought these were some interesting sites on MH color diffs.

http://www.cnidarianreef.com/lamps.cfm

http://www.coralreefecosystems.com/ltg_bulb_color.htm

 

[hillbilly]

The AquaMedic "Oceanlights" are great! IMO, it's the best quality, value HQI light out there. The Giesemann "Nova" is maybe slightly better quality, but it's over $100 more. Quality counts a lot when buying lights. I've had some pretty crappy ones over the years. The cheap ones don't hold up well over time. The AB bulbs that come with the oceanlight are up there on the quality scale also. I'm using AB 20k's on 2 of my tanks now. These bulbs are over SPS only tanks with no actinics, and hold color on blue and purple acros well. I'm planning on trying Giesemann's "Megachrome" bulbs next, but have been happy with the AB's. I'm a big fan of double ended bulbs. So, if I were you, from your choices above, I would go with 2 , 250w OceanLights with AB 20k bulbs. That would save you a little on electric costs. (As people pay crazy high rates for juice in CA.) You wouldn't need the actinics, and you could adjust the height of each one differently depending on the creatures kept.

 

[Entacmaea]

If you read the fine print on the oceanlights, for sale at $249, which is a great price- there is no warranty. I have heard good things about them, though the ReefOptix III or PFO HQI pendants are better reflectors, per Sanjay.

You have to ask why HelloLights is selling them so cheap, and why it won't even extend its 30-day "in-house" warranty to them...

I'm also in CA, and to save on electricity am going to use electronic ballasts...

The cautious shopper,
Peter

 

[hillbilly]

Interesting. Never bought anything from Hellolights except bulbs. They are many places that sell these though.

 

[Entacmaea]

To clarify, I don't think Hellolights is doing anything sinister here! Just checked marinedepot, and the same fixture is $279- not that much difference. Just me being cautious about the warranty.

 

[Oceans Ferevh]

Oceanlights huh (takes notes)...what about bulb brands? Which ones have you folks had luck with?

 

[hillbilly]

The OceanLights come with Aqualine Buschke bulbs, or AB for short. Very good brand. I use these now myself. Another good bulb brand, also from Germany, is the Giesemann Megachrome series. I'm going to try these when I replace my AB's. They are a little more pricey though. My advice is stay away from cheap bulbs such as the XM. While a lot of people use and like them, I have found them to be poorly constructed, with a rather short lifespan compaired to a well made German bulb. It seems most bulbs not made in Germany now are made in China, with questionable quality control.

 

[sslarison]

I have XM and I love them. I wont use anything else. Look at Sanjays testing results and you'll see that they perform consistantly in the top few on about every test. JMO.

 

[Unarce]

I was impressed with my XDE 20K bulb, considering the price. XM had told me that it should last for a year at 12 hours a day. It went through a major color shift during the year I had mine, and appeared more purple than blue. FWIW, I'll be sticking with German bulbs from here on out.

 

[Oceans Ferevh]

Well I wrote to Hello light quwstioning why there was no warrenty on the OceanLights and they wrote me back with this:

Hello Bethany, The reason why the oceanlights are not warrentied by us is because Aqua Medic who is the manufacturer of the Oceanlights would rather have the customer go through them rather than the seller of their product. The units are brand new, never been used and is not a close out sale. We have sold nearly one hundred of the oceanlight units in less than three months and have only heard but good news about them. The units have only been recently introduced to the market and are fully warrentied by Aqua Medic. If you have any further questions please feel free to give us a call at 1-866-969-7333 and ask for Adam, he will be able to assist you in any question or questions that you may have. Thank you for contacting us and have a very nice holiday and happy new year.

I also wrote Marinedepot about price matching and they replied with this email.

Hi Bethany,
Thank you for your inquiry.

We are able to match landed prices from our competitors. The landed price
includes the item cost plus any shipping/handling or other fees involved
with ordering from the other company. All you would need to do when placing
your order online is add a note in the 'order comments' section stating the
lower price and a link to the price. We will adjust the price when we
receive the order.
Please note that our free-shipping and tax-free promotions will not apply to
the items that are price matched.
The warranty on Aqua Medic lighting systems in 1 year on everything but the
bulb.

Please let us know if you have any further questions.

Cameron B.
Marine Depot Customer Service
www.marinedepot.com
714.385.0080

Pritty nice service from both.