Best Retrofit Kit?

[NaNO ReeFiN]

I've all but decided on ordering the 2x55W lights from Hellolights for 125 bucks. But, is there anyone else out there that would recommend a different retrofit kit for my 20L? Or are the hellolights the way to go?

[reef93]

In case you want to consider MH lighting within the budget check this out:

http://www.aquaticlight.com/retrofit.html#Aquatic

[Christopher Marks]

HelloLights PC retro kits are great! I'd stick with them.

[MKramer]

I was disgusted with the build-quality of my hellolights 13W Retro Kit. From their pictures, it looks like their other kits use remote ballasts, so maybe they're entirely different.

 

But I would certainly NEVER recommend their 13W Retros to anyone.

 

AH Supply would get my vote. Slightly more expensive, but their stuff is much better, in my experience.

[Christopher Marks]

Yeah...the hello lights 13w ballast is very different from the rest of their line. I have their VHO retros on my larger tanks, which use the same remote ballast...it really is high quality stuff.

 

The other place I'd reccommend checking out would be Petsupplyliquidator.com -> They have some nice full PC hoods, if you like the 'open top' tank look.

[reef93]

MKramer , I am not sure about build-quality of hellolight's 13w retro. But I am sure that true actinic03 will beat ahsupply's blue bulb.

[printerdown01]

Hummm.... good thing I read this post... I was going to order the 13W retro last night, but it slipped my mind. Thus, I was going to order it today... Has anyone out there ordered this thing and been happy with it... What is the actual complaint? What problems does a ballast/endcap create?

[Christopher Marks]

It was a great idea...having the ballast right there with the whole kit...but it simply generates too much heat. You really need to have a kit where the ballast is kept outside of the hood.

[MKramer]

reef93:

Blue bulbs are blue bulbs. I don't really care much about whose I use. The 03 actinic bulbs might actually look a tad better because they filter out non-blue light better than many other blue bulbs. But as far as the critters are concerned, the actinic intensity is indistinguisable.

 

Not to say there aren't good and bad ones. I just mean that "03" is not inherently better than a non-"03" or "true actinic" bulb.

 

If you compare the spectral output of AH Supply's Dark Blue bulbs to the spectral output of the philips 03 standard, you can see that at the 420nm peak, the Dark blue is only marginally (<5%) less intense than the 03.

 

So it doesn't fluoresce as well. Big deal.

 

Anyway.

 

printerdown:

I ordered three 13W kitts from hellolights. The first thing I noticed was that one of the three integral endcaps was a different size than the other two. It had absolutely nil clearance over the ballast, such that when I put a bulb in it, the bulb rests against the reflector. Not just rests, but presses against it with a good amount of pressure. I worry for that bulb.

 

The ballasts are old-school $0.50 magnetic coils with no quick-start circuitry. So you get that annoying flicker for a couple seconds as the bulb fires up. Not only is it annoying, but it shorters the lifespan of the bulb somewhat.

 

And while being quite minor, this one has to be my biggest complaint. The damn reflectors attached to the ballasts with VELCRO! Whenever I take off the hood, I'm bumping the reflectors and knocking them out of position and stuff. For the quantities they sell, I could think a hand-drill and a pop-rivet gun would be more cost effective than all this stupid velcro they use.

 

Furthermore, they came with no instructions, no switches, and no mounting hardware. Granted, I needed neither, but a lot of rookies would be pretty intimidated by having to wire-up their rather expensive aquarium lighting system without any hint of what wires gets wire-nutted to which other wire, and not everyone has boxes of screws laying around and such.

 

All that said, the kit works. I'm using it, and will continue to. But they cut a lot of corners and the end-product is a real hack-job compared to more put-together offerings from other companies.

[reef93]

mkramer, I am totally agree with you there no different between blue bulb and true actinice bulb, both primarily emitting wavelengths in the 420nm range, which is a major photosynthetic peak wavelength for coral. I believe this is marketing trick to get more money. But lot of people prefer VHO super actinic bulb for major reason is fluoresce little more. but then like you said "But as far as the critters are concerned, the actinic intensity is indistinguisable."

[anthony812]

hey nano...i know a guy in SD that is selling his PFO 250W MH system with 12K bulb..i think he wants somewhere $125-$150 for it..i think it will be much better than PCs..

[gobies]

On another board I frequent, the favorite retro setup is ballast/reflector/wiring etc. from AHSupply, bulbs from HelloLights.