winnker Posted June 8, 2004 Share Posted June 8, 2004 what is going to be the major difference between 5600K and 10K? and what about 20k? is that better than 10? and for soft corals Link to comment
surfy Posted June 8, 2004 Share Posted June 8, 2004 Major would be the 5,600 would be yellow and 10,000k would be white. 20,000k will be very blue. It's really up to you. If you like blue then get the 20k if you just want some blue with a crisp white go 50/50 with 10k and 03 (antinic) I personally don't like anything under 10k. The higher kelvin (20k) the slower the growth. The lower the kelvin (10k) the faster the growth will be. More blue will help the colors "pop". Link to comment
winnker Posted June 8, 2004 Author Share Posted June 8, 2004 ok, so if I go with the 6500K, then everything will grow faster but the color won't be as good. right? now will the 6500K grow a lot of algae or no? and would it be enough for a 20 gal reef? Link to comment
surfy Posted June 8, 2004 Share Posted June 8, 2004 Light dosn't cause algae, excess nutrients does. The more yellow the light the blander the corals will look. You have to have good water perams to get good growth but yes lower kelvin bulbs are known to give better growth rates. There's alot to it besides color temp. Do a search on PAR (photosynthetically active radiation) that is what you really need to look at. The color temp really has nothing to do with what you want to keep. Wattage and PAR determines what you can keep and where at in the tank. Link to comment
winnker Posted June 8, 2004 Author Share Posted June 8, 2004 ok, well, my problem is that I bid on a bulb on ebay and didn't realize that it is 6500K and not 10K and you can't cancel bids on e-bay Link to comment
surfy Posted June 8, 2004 Share Posted June 8, 2004 You can still use it but it will be more yellow looking. What's the wattage of the bulb? How many bulbs do you run? Link to comment
winnker Posted June 8, 2004 Author Share Posted June 8, 2004 it will be 150 watt. and I am just installing the hqi tomarrow, I am running right now a 65 watt pc strip and a 10K florecent strip Link to comment
surfy Posted June 8, 2004 Share Posted June 8, 2004 Make sure to acclimate your corals to the new light. Does the HQI have a UV shield? Good luck and have fun with the MH:) Link to comment
winnker Posted June 8, 2004 Author Share Posted June 8, 2004 a uv shield? what do you mean and how do I acclimate them to the light? Link to comment
surfy Posted June 8, 2004 Share Posted June 8, 2004 Here is some info for acclimating your corals, http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...to+metal+halide A UV shield is just a UV protective piece of glass that is placed over the double ended bulb. DE bulbs don't have the outer UV protective glass like the SE(single ended) MH bulbs do. But even the SE give off some UV. Link to comment
winnker Posted June 8, 2004 Author Share Posted June 8, 2004 the light has an open end on it where u put the bulb in. tehre isn't any glass there. the bulb itself is glass covered. it looks like a halagine bulb Link to comment
surfy Posted June 8, 2004 Share Posted June 8, 2004 You need to get a UV shield before you even fire it up. The UV is very bad for the corals and very bad for you. Do you have a pendent? Or did you DIY a DE MH setup? Link to comment
yessongs Posted June 8, 2004 Share Posted June 8, 2004 Is it a double ended bulb you bid on?. HQI uses DE bulbs so it needs a UV shield, or you will fry your livestock and maybe people too. "how do I acclimate them to the light?" You can do this by putting nylon window screen on your tank lid, use 5 layers and remove one every two days. As stated above PAR is important, you should do research on bulbs from eBay. Here is a link from JB NY from RC it would give you an idea of color and PAR www.cnidarianreef.com/lamps.cfm Link to comment
winnker Posted June 8, 2004 Author Share Posted June 8, 2004 ok thanks you so much. now where can I get t he uv shield? Link to comment
surfy Posted June 8, 2004 Share Posted June 8, 2004 Here is some UV info and what you can use as a UV shield, http://www.aquarium-design.com/reef/uvlighting.html Link to comment
surfy Posted June 8, 2004 Share Posted June 8, 2004 What kind of glass should I use to shield this bulb? A. Most regular glass will filter out UV rays. Of course, we are not glass experts, so we recommend that you go to your local Hardware Store, Glass Shop or Frame Store to find out which glass will filter the most UV. You can use tempered glass, since HQI type bulbs burn at a very hot temp, but are not required to. Link to comment
winnker Posted June 8, 2004 Author Share Posted June 8, 2004 thanks so much for your help guys Link to comment
Steve973 Posted June 8, 2004 Share Posted June 8, 2004 Because of the PAR ratings on a 6500 degree Kelvin bulb, you will most likely notice more algae growth than with a 10000K or a 20000K. You will also notice greater coral growth. Visually, the quality of the look is subjective and can vary a little bit between bulb and ballast combinations. If you don't like the look of it, you can make it less "yellow" and more "blue" by supplementing with actinic fluorescent bulbs. Steve Link to comment
winnker Posted June 8, 2004 Author Share Posted June 8, 2004 ok, so does it mean that I have to have glass on my tank stil? I figured that I could take the glass off. damn,. Iwas hoping at least lol. well I guess it means I will put a actinic bulb in a small strip and keep that on the glass and have the hqi hanging. Link to comment
Steve973 Posted June 8, 2004 Share Posted June 8, 2004 If you have a DE bulb, you need to filter the UV with glass. You could probably get away with plain glass, but the halide bulbs get very hot, and I wouldn't want to risk cracking the glass. And you can put the glass in your fixture (or buy one with UV glass in it already) and you can remove the glass from the top of your tank. I can't imagine putting halide on a tank and then putting glass on top. I imagine the greenhouse effect would be pretty bad. Steve Link to comment
winnker Posted June 9, 2004 Author Share Posted June 9, 2004 well, it will be a suspended pendant, but I know what your saying and no I don't think regular glass would cut it either I guess you can go to home depot and get acrylic cut so I think I will try that I read on a web site that it has to be 1/4" thick so I will try that. Link to comment
Steve973 Posted June 9, 2004 Share Posted June 9, 2004 Acrylic is plastic and it will melt next to a halide. Steve Link to comment
winnker Posted June 9, 2004 Author Share Posted June 9, 2004 are you sure? I wasn't sure if it was a different type that wouldn't melt as easy. Link to comment
Steve973 Posted June 9, 2004 Share Posted June 9, 2004 Tempered glass would be the way to go. If you spend extra on tempered UV glass, that'd be even better. Steve Link to comment
winnker Posted June 9, 2004 Author Share Posted June 9, 2004 ya maybe i will. i have put a lot of money into corals and stuff so it would be worth it Link to comment
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