Brent Bohannon
Community Member
- Joined
- May 5, 2019
- Messages
- 75
- Reaction score
- 37
I posted this in another thread but it needed its own. I have been keeping saltwater for 28 years now. I started when MH were everything but didn't have the money for them. Once I really had money to spend, LEDs took over. Flash forward and my wife loves it too. During school we had tanks next to a window and they were amazing. I attributed them to the "new LED's" but now I think it was the natural sunlight. Our tanks as of late do not do as well and are far away from natural light. I am thinking that halides might be the missing piece, here is a little back story.
We have a Reefer 250 and 1000. Long story short, wife and I had the 250 rolling with Clams/SPS/LPS/Softies and our then 3 year son, now 5, decided to "feed" the tank. All gone. We kept the fish alive and are now rebooting the coral. The 1000 never got off the ground because we lost all the feeder coral so it houses a pair of maroons. The 250 had two Radion XR15's but we just added a t5 hybrid. We liked that so much I ordered two 24" t5 hybrids for the 1000 that has three XR30's. We still have room to add a MH in the middle and would like to try that as well. We are looking at the reefbrite adjustable ballast 175/250/400 SE. (Side note, reefbrite's website states that the 400 w bulb is not part of the selectable ballast but this product page says it is. Not sure how that works.) We're thinking we could start out with a 175 from aquabright and move up as necessary. Our plan is to move one of the XR 30's to the 250 and keep two on the 1000 with eight 24" t5 and one MH. I can also add the two XR15's if necessary. We want to be able to keep anything she desires. Any suggestions would be great. We have a par meter so we can do all the checking for coral placement. Anyone who says money is not an issue is either lying or spending someone else's money, so I won't say that. People that earn their money always care about it. I will say that our budget is certainly more than the cost of a MH fixture and bulbs, with replacements. Love to hear thoughts.
We have a Reefer 250 and 1000. Long story short, wife and I had the 250 rolling with Clams/SPS/LPS/Softies and our then 3 year son, now 5, decided to "feed" the tank. All gone. We kept the fish alive and are now rebooting the coral. The 1000 never got off the ground because we lost all the feeder coral so it houses a pair of maroons. The 250 had two Radion XR15's but we just added a t5 hybrid. We liked that so much I ordered two 24" t5 hybrids for the 1000 that has three XR30's. We still have room to add a MH in the middle and would like to try that as well. We are looking at the reefbrite adjustable ballast 175/250/400 SE. (Side note, reefbrite's website states that the 400 w bulb is not part of the selectable ballast but this product page says it is. Not sure how that works.) We're thinking we could start out with a 175 from aquabright and move up as necessary. Our plan is to move one of the XR 30's to the 250 and keep two on the 1000 with eight 24" t5 and one MH. I can also add the two XR15's if necessary. We want to be able to keep anything she desires. Any suggestions would be great. We have a par meter so we can do all the checking for coral placement. Anyone who says money is not an issue is either lying or spending someone else's money, so I won't say that. People that earn their money always care about it. I will say that our budget is certainly more than the cost of a MH fixture and bulbs, with replacements. Love to hear thoughts.
Last edited:
