Hi, I have a redsea max 130 with stock lighting which is two 55watt T5 compact fluorescent 50/50 bulbs.
I have a lot of zoos at the bottom which have nice color with stock lights and i had a deep water acro near the top for about a year that had nice color until my xenia took it over and killed it. i cant stop wondering if i would have even better color if i upgraded the lighting. The tank is 24" deep.
I was thinking of:

A. retro fitting a single 150W metal halide 14000K
OR
B. retro fitting two 54W T5 fluorescent bulbs
OR
C. go open top and have a single 150W metal halide with two power compact actinics
OR
D. go open top and have four 54W T5 fluorescent bulbs

would the single 150W metal halide be a huge upgrade from the stock lights? Which of the above scenerios would be better while keeping heat in mind as well? I would perfer to try the retrofitting scenerios and keep the hood.

thanks

B and D are impossible. You are most likely thinking about retro fitting T5HO bulbs, but 54W T5s are 4ft long. With your RSM only 24" long, fitting 24W T5HOs will be tough. T5 will give you a lot of color options, but looks like open top is your only choice for that one. Nanocustoms does a 150W MH retro for that tank with PC actinics. 24" Outer Orbit would be nice, but open top again. Actually, open top makes temperature control a lot easier

oops yeah i was a bit confused.. i was thinking of the two foot t5s.
i see that Stevie T has the outer orbit..it would be a pain to do water changes..

You can always hang it.

tagging along.

It's not that hard. you just slide the light on the feet towards the back of the tank. You have plenty of room to get in there for maintenance/water changes.

I would hang my light but there is a huge return grate right above for the HVAC in the office.

Hi StevieT,
I'm a fan of your thread. It's hard to tell from photos...how is the outer orbit? it's not too much light? ..and the heat?

Great light
Too much light in this hobby is hard to come by
I do not have heat issues. I need a fan in the summer but can keep it below 82. In the colder months I can keep the tank at 79

does anyone know how the 24" Outer Orbit 150W HQI compares to the Coralife 24" AquaLight Pro Metal Halide Fixture - 1 x 150W ?

Im in canada and the outer orbit will run me $623 CAN before tax and the Coralife is $555 CAN..

Concensus is that the Outer Orbit is a better fixture. Far better if you can get the version with T5s for actinics. Even if it's a PC version, the PCs are much better in the OO, and the reflectors seem better.

looking at 24watt t5s.. i think i can fit 4 into the hood and get a 4 bulb ballast to fit in as well .. and if not then i can get two individually controlled 2 bulb remote ballasts.. but that main problem is i can only fit 4 24 watt t5 ho bulbs.. which totals 96 watts but the stock lights for the rsm is 2X55 watts totally 110 watts..
so im wondering, would upgrading to 4X24 watts linear t5s be really an upgrade in light?

4x24W T5 w/ good reflectors > 110W PCs

go with the outer orbit thats what i have over my rsm i bought mine after steviet got his and i love it i also went with the 250 MH my tank loves it

thanks for all the advice.
im in vancouver bc canada and i cant seem to find any place that sells the current usa products.
also the outer orbit line is discontinued right? if i cant find it would the coralife aquapro be the next best option? geissman is too expensve... id rather just get the rsm 250.
thanks agian

Do a goggle search for it. I did a while ago and found that bed bath and beyond had these lights since they were discontinued for dirt cheap.I know bed bath and beyond sounds crazy but they had them LOL

skp I have a rsm 130 aswell I went with the geissman light, got it on sale at jnl for $400 canadian. I live in ontario, I had a hard time looking for a light aswell. Go with a hqi light you will not be disappointed.
I would stay away from coralife products since they are cheap, look into the hamilton products at J.N.L in B.C.
Here is a link:

http://www.jlaquatics.com/info/305/Hamilto...cent+Hoods.html

Also steve t made a black acylic cover for the sump and is a nice option.
You can build one or get a plastic company to make you one since i am sure steve t is too busy to do this, since i ask him to make me one, but he told me he has no time to get into covers right now.
It work out for me since i built one myself and put fans right inside of the cover and everything is hidden and keeps my temp within 1 degree.

Anyways goodluck to ya

ok i looked everywhere and couldnt find anything and then i came upon a 24" current usa sunpod.
It has 1X 150watt metal halide and 12 lunar lights, no fluorescent bulbs.

currently i have the stock rsm lights on for 12 hours. i have a bunch of zoos at the bottom, a favia and a green bubble tip at the middle and a superman monti and a bunch of xenia at the top. Anyone have any advice how i should time the new light?

thanks a lot

12hrs can work for the halide, but I'd go with 10hrs. Use window screen to acclimate.

thanks for the advice..
windows screen acclimate? cant i just try a shorter photo period to start?

Not really. The whole point of acclimation is to reduce the intensity. If you reduce your photoperiod, all you are doing is limiting the amount of time that your corals are getting pounded by intense light. Using screen blocks some of the light, reducing the overall intensity.

thant makes sense
thanks again

i have another question..
i notice that the hqi, blue leds and white leds are all independant so i can adjust timers for everything to "hopefully" make a night to day transition..
would it be ok to say have the timers set like this?:

white leds on at 9 am
hqi on at 10 am
hqi off at 8 pm
white leds off at 9 pm
blue leds on at 9pm
blue leds off at 9 am

i just have two timers..
is it ok that the white leds are on at during the time the hqi is on?

would it be a better idea to forget about the night to day transition and just set it like this?:
hqi on at 10 am
hqi off at 8 pm
white and blue leds on at 8 pm
white and blue leds off at 3 am
everything off from 3 am to 10 am

thanks again

I wouldn't even worry about setting different times for the LEDs. They are just moonlights, and weak ones at that. They don't need to be bright. Just have the LEDs turn on and off on the opposite cycle to the halide.

hmm i dont know if i should add this question here or make a new topic..
one of the reasons i chose the sunpod were the moon lights...i thought i needed moon lights but reading more i find theyre just for viewing the tank at night.. so my next option was a nova extreme pro. i wasnt sure if i could fit the 20" on my tank though..
i still havent opened the sunpod so i could return it still. I just bought it because i was in the area and the drive from home is kind of a pain.

what do you think of the sunpod compared to the nova series?
thanks again.. i already read through the one thread that compares the 20" sunpod with the 20" nova extreme pro.

I'm glad I found this thread. I am shopping for an upgraded lighting system for my RSM. I was planning to get the outer orbit 24 but they are difficult to find now. Looking around today I found the 24 inch Giesemann NEP-TUNE Pro. 1x250watt HQI and 2x 24watt t5'S. Has anyone used this fixture?

20" Sunpod is better IMO, just from the point of bulb selection. Light output will be about the same. I'd keep the Sunpod honestly.

i decided to keep the sunpod..
i plugged it in and it is brighter than the stock lights but not that much brighter..i dont think i will need to acclimate anything to the new light intensity.
does the bulb need time to break in? will it get brighter? or should i just get a better bulb right away?

Acclimate. Seriously, you are asking for trouble otherwise. What your eye may see as not much brighter could be far far briighter (PAR wise) to your corals. Before you kill anything, get at least one layer of screen over the tank. It's cheap, and it can't hurt to use it. If the corals react well with the single layer, take it off after a few days and see how everything reacts.

It will take about 100 hours for the bulb to break in in and show its true colors. The stock Current 14K is not bad, but there are better bulbs out there in terms of color and PAR.

thanks again for the help.
ill go get some window screen right away and i dont have many corals and all can be moved to more shaded spots except my xenia...which brings up another question.

one thing id like to add about this light is that the spot light affect is more substantial than i thought.
i have a colony of xenia, about 12 stocks growing directly under the bulb right up to the water surface and it blocks a lot of light from reaching the rest of the tank.. it makes shadows here and there which look pretty nice but it limits the amount of area i have to keep higher light demanding corals.

if i were to get a single or double T5 fuorescent bulb on there as well will that help?

thanks again

It may be able to help some. Any time you go from a linear source of light to a point source, you are going to have more pronounce shadows. I personally feel it's more natural looking. You could always leave the shadowed area for non-photsynthetic corals.

i noticed that the right side of the fixture has a vent that looks much like the left side but with no fan in it.
is a fan supposed to be able to be installed in that right side because i think it has some holes that can be used as screw holes. if so.. is there a power connector inside the fixture for the fan or does the fan have to be an external unit?

It's where the fan pulls air from. Cool air enters one side of the fixture, cools the bulb and exits the other side of the fixture rather warm.

There isnt any other vent so it must be an air intake. I wonder why it has screw holes aorund it. Since the fan on the left blows hot air out, if i were to add a fan on the right it would have to blow air in right?would this even help with the cooling of the fixture?