How do you supplement with actinic lights?

[Moe_K]

I have a couple of 250 watt MH lights over my 125.
To get the colors in teh tank to pop a bit more, I want to supplement with a 6' actinic bulb run on an old Icecap ballast.

I'm having trouble figuring out how to add the 6' long VHO bulb over the tank and not block light from the MH pendants.
Any ideas?

Pictures of how you do it might help.

 

[dannyp02908]

Do you have a canopy? The MHs are retrofits? If so, do you have the room to move the vho away from the halides? All of the setups I've seen have no issues with having fluorescents and mh in the same canopy. Usually the MHs are in the middle with a flourescent on either side similar to the layout of an off the shelf light.

 

[s_kelley]

What kelvin are your halides moe? I always liked the blue of 20k radiums

 

[Moe_K]

I have a mismatch in the MHs.
The DE halide is an AB 10K light. The mogul MH lamp is an Ushio 10K which is bluer.
I was never a big fan of the very blue MH lamps.

 

[stingythingy45]

I have 2 4ft. T5 ATI Blue plus cheated to the front of my canopy.
They're both Hellolights retros with reflectors. I could take a couple pics, tomorrow for you Moe.

 

[stingythingy45]

Whoops,it's been so long I forgot where I got them.

It's a Sunlight supply retro,2 48" bulbs,maybe from reefgeek.

 

[stingythingy45]

Here's the retro I bought in the 48",Moe.
Here's a link to the 60"
Bulbs, reflectors and all. They're narrow enough to fit them in my canopy along with 2 sunlight supply Reef Optix 2 pendents.

http://www.reefgeek.com/60-2x80w-miro-4-t5-high-output-retrofit-kit.html

 

[JohnK]

Is it an icecap 660? If so, then you can run either VHO bulbs (maybe the internal reflector type) or Overdrive t5s (great output, shortened lifespan of the blubs).

If you go T5 it will take up a little more width due to the reflectors, but you can run something like ATI blue plus blubs that have a TON more PAR than any actinic bulb, but don't have quite the same "black light like" look.

If you go VHO with internal reflectors you will get real "actinic" supplementation, and they will take up less space.

 

[wrassefan]

the T5 reflectors are adjustable so you can "aim" the light source a bit..might be the better option. An alternative is to add the led strip lights for the actinic...though I assume you are going for the nostalgic vho glow .

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Salt-Water-...ht-LED-Strip-250-Lumens-Ft-Moon-/280905564366