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Wow, MH lighting rules!
I bought a MH retro kit last week and got it today. 2x 175w Venture
5K bulbs, sockets, and good old Advance core/coil ballasts (in nify aluminum heatsink/box) all cabling, and a nice reflector. From Cool Touch Lighting in Canada - $289 for everything including shipping via UPS to the US. Firstly, it took 7 hours to mount the reflector, sockets, build a pair of T12 reflectors w/sockets (4" PVC cut in 1/3 pieces and sockets screwed to the ends) to hold 6500K bulbs/wire to ballasts all into my canopy. The Venture bulbs look great over my 75 gal freshwater planted tank. Previously I have been using 4x T12s (2x Chroma 50s, and 2x Ultra Daylight 65s) but they never came close to the quality light this new MH setup makes. The plants look more brilliant, the fish look happier, I have a realistic 'sparkle' at the bottom of the tank, and most importantly I now have steady streams of bubbles coming from nearly every plant and noticed at least an inch of growth (!) in several hours. My tank is CO2 injected via a 20lbs bottle regulated to .5 lbs and controlled by a special valve made for my at my work (we make precision digital flow controllers and meters) to hold about 18ppm CO2. The tank is about 2.5 years old, but spent nearly a year sitting with dead plants, fish and 90% evaporated water due to a move and nowhere/time to get back into it. About 1.5 months ago I fixed the filter and brought everything back to life (tank was still pretty much cycled) and bought some new plants and fish. Things have been pretty smooth except for the lack of light slowing plant growth. The substrate is a mix of Peat Moss and sand for the bottom layer, and the top is quartz gravel with a little laterite mixed in. I treat with some trace element additives once a week and started adding some K last week, once a week. I have a bit of brown algae on the glass and gravel, but nothing serious. I'm hoping the new light allows the plants to beat the algae. Anyway, figured I'd post finally after following this group for years but never having anything to say. MH rules! Dieter |
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