Major lighting upgrade

**Phurst** · 03-07-2008, 08:46 AM

I've been wanting to upgrade my lights for some time now. I liked the little MH/PC fixture I had, and it had served me well for the last 2 years, but it just wasn't bright enough for me on a 24" deep tank. So, I decided an upgrade was in order. Earlier this week, I went by one of our local club members houses who is upgrading from a 120 to a 220 and picked up his canopy and lights. So, I now have 2 400w MH and 2 T5 actinics mounted in a canopy. Light shock will be a real issue here, so I will be slowly ramping up the lighting over the next couple of weeks. I must say though, that the tank looks SOOOOO different with all that light. The 2 54w T5s with individual reflectors totaly put my old 2 96w PCs to shame, and the 400s absolutely blow away the old 150w HQIs (no surprise there...) I had never really given any thought to having a canopy before, as I kinda liked the open top look, but I find I really like the way it looks with a canopy. It focuses your attention on the tank, and not all the gear around it. Anyway, here's a before and after shot.

Before (a few months old):

And now, (yeah, yeah, I need to clean my glass, I wasn't ecpecting to take a FTS last night):

***lReef lKeeper*** · 03-07-2008, 01:28 PM

that looks great man. wait until you see the colors in the SPS shift for the better. you will be totally amazed at the colors that they will take on !!

guess i have to go with 400s now !!

**Phurst** · 03-07-2008, 02:10 PM

Thanks, I'm really excited to have this setup. I've got a couple of sets of bulbs to mess with and find the right look. The ones in the pictures are 20k Reef Optics. i have some 20K XMs to try and some 14k something. They're either Coralife or Hamiltons I think, I need to look at them.

***lReef lKeeper*** · 03-07-2008, 02:36 PM

i personally like the look of the 14k bulbs, 20s are a little blue for my taste. but the 20s would really make the colors shift, a little to much for me though. a buddy of mine ran 10k reeflux and the ends and a 20k XM in the middle for a while. the 20 had more of a complete coral color change. and the reeflux had 2-3 different colors on each coral. i like the 2-3 color look on my SPS. hope that gives you something to work with.

**Phurst** · 03-07-2008, 02:41 PM

I'm going to try the 14s tonight. These bulbs don't look all that blue for 20ks, but I'm sure the XMs will. I guess I'll see later.

PhotoJohn · 03-07-2008, 04:09 PM

I love my 400s

PhotoJohn · 03-07-2008, 04:10 PM

just a thought about 14k, they have the lowest par rating. I run 14k bulbs but i didnt know that at the time.