bulb recommendations

[BoomerD]

I have obtained a IceCap 430 ballast for the 90 gallon FOWLR I'm trying to get set up. Which bulb or combination of bulbs will be best both for the live rock, & to show off the colors of the fish? I realize the fish really don't care about the lighting, so long as they can see to find food, but I'd like things to look their best, & give the coralline algae a good chance. I've read about 10,000K & 12,000K 50/50 bulbs, and wonder whether they would be good by themselves, or if I would need actinic also? Also, what about the "daylight" spectrum bulbs? good or no? Also, on the Icecap website, they say I can run up to 3 48" 110w bulbs, but Champion and others say only 2 ???
Thanks.

[Chuck S]

Boomer I visited Icecap website just to be sure. Icecap shows it will light 2 48inch VHO.

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With an IceCap Model 430 Electronic Ballast, you can use power compacts or mix and match different wattages. Below are some possible combinations. VHO lamps can also be mixed with power compacts (one 4ft. linear lamp equals one 96 Watt power compact or two 55 Watt power compacts).

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The 430 lights 2 96watt power compacts. Note above one 4 ft linear light equals one 96watt PC. I would go with a mixed light source as well. One daylight and one actinic. This tends to bring out the colors in the fish and is best for the coralline algae on the rocks.

[BoomerD]

I got the 3 bulb information from the following page: Ice Cap 430 (http://www.icecapinc.com/apptab.htm)
Refer to the 2nd line, 3 bulbs, 12 ft. max, 3x4, 3, or 2 ft.
Unless I'm reading it wrong?

[Chuck S]

Your reading it right but I would be highly suspect that the bulbs would not be running correctly. You could try it.

[BoomerD]

Traded e-mails with IceCap. They say the 430 will run 3 110w 4' bulbs.

[Chuck S]

When all else fails go to the source. I am glad Andy Howard got back to you in a timely manner. If you plan on running the 3 light setup you can run a 10k,actinic,50/50 or 50/50,actinic,50/50 in that order front to back. The only bad thing about that setup is the lack of a light that would come on an hour before and stay on an hour after to act as a sunright/sunset feature. Also I would buy the URI over the cheaper Coralife bulbs as URI is hands down better.

[BoomerD]

On this same subject, I got word from "Ash", one of the moderators on an IceCap sponsored Reef Central board, who said that 3 bulbs would push the limits of the ballast, and while it would work, it might shorten the life of the ballast. I wish they would make up my mind! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif LOL!
I have both a 48" and 24" standard shoplight fixtures which I had considered using 1 hr. before and 1hr. after the regular lights for just that dawn/dusk effect. I'm inclined to do the 24" as it would be considerably dimmer than even the 40w of the 48". Thanks again.

[Chuck S]

[ QUOTE ]

On this same subject, I got word from "Ash", one of the moderators on an IceCap sponsored Reef Central board, who said that 3 bulbs would push the limits of the ballast, and while it would work, it might shorten the life of the ballast. I wish they would make up my mind! LOL!

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Ash is completely right. That is the point I was getting at. I said that it might work. I do not want to rag on any company so I was trying to be delicate. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif It will light the 3 yes but wire the 2 and then look how brighter the lights are only wired for 2.
Icecap while a fine company pushes the envelope quite far in some cases. This would be one of them. The thing is only rated for such a load and 3 lights push that. I still remember going to MACNA XIV this year and inspecting their latest ballast the electronic 400WATT halide. I could have sung a tune to the HUMMING that came from that thing. Talk about bringing something to market before its time. I think almost everyone who saw it talked about that ballast.

I would personally wire the 430 up with 2 bulbs. Since you have a 90 gallon you could use two 48inch 4owatt shoplight ballasts as the dusk and dawn feature. You do not seem like your in a rush so this would work until you got some money together. You could pick up a couple Fulham ballasts which would light VHO. They can be found with a little work at some hardware stores or special ordered. They are cheap and work great. Like 25 bucks for an electronic ballast which lights one 110watt VHO 4 foot.

http://www.fulham.com/index.html

I did a quick search and there are many places that carry these ballasts. You will want a workhorse or longhorse 7. You will want one for each bulb even though it says 228 watts max. A VHO 4 foot bulb is actually 116watts not 110watts so two bulbs is slightly higher than the max. I run two workhorse 7's which light my dusk/dawm actinic VHO's. They work absolutely fabulous.

In a 4 bulb setup I would use actinic/ 50/50 /actinic/ 50/50

or actinic/ 10k /actinic/ 50/50 or actinic/ 10k /actinic/ 10k