Effective depth ?

[marco67]

Anyone have experience with the 400 DEs ?

I'm working on a project that has a footprint of ~12'x5' and needs to be at least 4' deep, 5' would be better/ awesome.

Question is, at what point do I step up to Lumenarc IIIs with 1000s?

[dad300]

I would think with that depth it depends on whether the whole tank will be a show(ish) tank or if your looking at offering the different levels of the reef in a home tank..
if is supposed to be a tank that will have sps from top to bottom.. I'd go with the lumenarcs if not... go with something of a lesser light..
It sounds like a tank i've been thinking of building..if I ever get to the place to build a custom house.

[smcnally]

I guess it would also depend on what you want to grow down low. Are you planing on putting light demanding things down low, Marc?

[marco67]

I guess it would also depend on what you want to grow down low.
OOps my bad I was assuming and not putting it in print.
There can be no limitations (within reason)

Are you planing on putting light demanding things down low, Marc?
Of course I'll plan on aquascaping accordingly but if the day comes when I get "can we move that down here"
"No" or "No because I saved you $500 (or $5000 for that matter) on the install"
Would be examples of unacceptable answers! :p

[maurod]

Isn't Sanjay running 400's in lumenarcs over a 4 foot deep tank ?

I'd say if your goal is no compromises, it's time for 1000's
M.

[marco67]

ahh but there is a compromise with the 1000s... bulb selection or lack thereof that is.

Here's a funny one... I just got off the phone with one tank builder and to go glass we're talking in the ballpark of 2 1/8" thick. Tank would deliver at between 3 and 4 tons.

[maurod]

Talk to Joe A over at Atlantis about bulb experiences. I gotta say though 400W 10K bulbs like the XM put out so much par that 4 or 5 foot should be easy.

I wonder if Greg H has any feed back... :)
M.

[saltwaterB]

Mark,

You should have the tank built on site, I would think that it would be much easier.

For a tank that deep, and to not say later.."I wish I had..." I would just go with the 1000w w/ luminarc. Radium makes a 1000w 20k, you could offset them with a couple of 400w 10K. I would think that should cover it.
William planned on using 4 x 1000w over the 2000gal. that tank was 5' deep(Would have hated to see that electric bill)

-B-

[Dave McReeferson]

ahh but there is a compromise with the 1000s... bulb selection or lack thereof that is.

Here's a funny one... I just got off the phone with one tank builder and to go glass we're talking in the ballpark of 2 1/8" thick. Tank would deliver at between 3 and 4 tons.

Looks like they are overdoing it a smidge on the safety factor Marc for that glass thickness (a safety factor of 3.8, which is industry standard give or take, puts you just under 2" thick), but if cost is no issue, and it's not your money, I guess it is better safe than sorry.

Sounds like a fun project to take on, nice score! :)

Out of curiosity, are you planning on low iron glass in this app.?

[maurod]

Dave,
How do you calculate the saftey factor? Are there pages on this stuff?
M.

[marco67]

Looks like they are overdoing it a smidge on the safety factor Marc for that glass thickness (a safety factor of 3.8, which is industry standard give or take, puts you just under 2" thick), but if cost is no issue, and it's not your money, I guess it is better safe than sorry.

Sounds like a fun project to take on, nice score! :)

Out of curiosity, are you planning on low iron glass in this app.?

Either glass or quite possibly acrylic as I'm pretty sure it will not be a rectangle

the 2 1/8 was an "off the top of the head" number based on curved/laminated glass at 5' tall so it could very well be less once the engineering is done.

if glass it would certainly be LI

[jimmyj7090]

We're talking DE bulbs for the 400's right?

If so, is there any reason for the DE over SE bulbs? Last I read the 400 DE set ups are just standard 400W ballasts with DE bulbs that don't perform very well. Would SE 400W bulbs in luminarcs be better choice? Then again, with that depth, and (maybe/implied?)a rather large budget, WHY NOT just go 1000's in luminarcs?

[marco67]

Still working out tank design but as of Friday it's looking to be all of 5' possibly 5.5-6' deep. Needless to say 400s are looking to be "off the table".

[naturebatslast]

Talk to Joe A over at Atlantis about bulb experiences. I gotta say though 400W 10K bulbs like the XM put out so much par that 4 or 5 foot should be easy.

I wonder if Greg H has any feed back... :)
M.

I've seen melted 400w XM 10k bulbs at Terry Siegel setup. His experience was the plus being it's cheapest 400w bulb with the most PAR/PPFD out there. The downside was they had the lowest manufacter quality which made a few melt.

[reefjarod]

I'f money isnt a concern instead of 1000w I'd use 400s but more of them close together and mix the spectrums 10 and 20k my 2 cents. I like looking at my tank with 20k but get better growth with 10k