Metal halide lighting discussion

[neil82]

View attachment 14002
Hopefully that screenshot will post. The temp is programmed to stay between 79.0 and 79.5. Hit 80.2 as the high yesterday when I ran the MH lights for about 3.5 hours in the afternoon. Today the high temp was 79.9 and I ran the lights from 9 til noon. I'll keep them running in the early part of the day as it is cooler in our basement during that time. I have the t5s set to run from 10am to 9pm. The light fixture is hanging 6 inches above water line. I have a fan on order and I'll have that set to run with MH as @jda123 suggested.

 

[TheRealChrisBrown]

View attachment 14008

Here is mine from today, MH on at noon off at 4. t5's on at 8am off at 8pm. Heaters programmed to keep it between 76.5 and 78.5.

 

[zombie]

View attachment 14008

Here is mine from today, MH on at noon off at 4. t5's on at 8am off at 8pm. Heaters programmed to keep it between 76.5 and 78.5.

This is completely off topic, but I would suggest either tightening your hysteresis to 1 degree or have your heaters alternate to slow the temp rise. When I did some heat stress testing back in the day I noticed decrease in growth rate and polyp extension when temp rise exceeded 2 degrees per hour. If you can slow that rise down, you might see increased growth rate.

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[SynDen]

Ya, I always keep mine to less then a degree of difference. Most of the time its only about half a degree. Corals certainly do better when the temp is more stable. I use the Apex seasonal temp too, so it gradually increases temp in the spring/summer and decreases temp in the fall/winter
View attachment 14009

 

[TheRealChrisBrown]

@SynDen or @zombie is this all that is needed for Seasonal temp:

View attachment 14010
I changed my current programming to 1 degree variance (77 to 78), but the seasonal thing looks cool and something I never knew existed. What is a good differential on the seasonal...the example uses +-0.4?

 

[SynDen]

i use something like this
If Tmp < RT+-0.2 Then ON
If Tmp > RT+0.0 Then OFF

 

[zombie]

@SynDen or @zombie is this all that is needed for Seasonal temp:

View attachment 14010
I changed my current programming to 1 degree variance (77 to 78), but the seasonal thing looks cool and something I never knew existed. What is a good differential on the seasonal...the example uses +-0.4?

Depends on the tank, but this is what I would personally use (assumes that at least heater 2 has it's own thermostat set a couple degrees higher than the apex setpoints) this is a 0.6 degree hysteresis. I also like to adjust the season table so the temp varies from 77 to 80. The default temps are a little wide for my liking.

Heater1
Fallback OFF
If Temp < RT+-0.2 Then ON
If Time 00:00 to 11:59 Then OFF
If Temp < RT+-0.4 Then ON
If Temp > RT+0.2 Then OFF
If Temp < 75.0 Then OFF

Heater2
Fallback ON
If Temp < RT+-0.2 Then ON
If Time 12:00 to 23:59 Then OFF
If Temp < RT+-0.4 Then ON
If Temp > RT+0.2 Then OFF

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[SynDen]

Also you can use the seasonal sunrise/sunset to control the lighting times too, so that it runs the lights less in the winter and more in the summer. You just offset the times in the schedule to match your preferred viewing time.
I use this on my lights

Blues
If Sun 015/015 Then ON

Full
If Sun 285/-175 Then ON

 

[neil82]

Also you can use the seasonal sunrise/sunset to control the lighting times too, so that it runs the lights less in the winter and more in the summer. You just offset the times in the schedule to match your preferred viewing time.
I use this on my lights

Blues
If Sun 015/015 Then ON

Full
If Sun 285/-175 Then ON

That's awesome. This is all news to me. Can you please explain how the offset code functions?

 

[neil82]

View attachment 14008

Here is mine from today, MH on at noon off at 4. t5's on at 8am off at 8pm. Heaters programmed to keep it between 76.5 and 78.5.

Doesn't look like your lights are pushing the temp up any higher than their setpoint. That's good news. Are you running a fan on them?

 

[TheRealChrisBrown]

Doesn't look like your lights are pushing the temp up any higher than their setpoint. That's good news. Are you running a fan on them?

No fan, but basement sump. I was thinking that might help keep things cooler? I was relieved to see the temp was on the decline once the MH went on...I wasn't expecting that at all.

 

[MuralReef]

View attachment 14012
Here is what my temp looks like through out the day. I like a wider temp range even though it might be harder on the corals because if the temp drops or rises too high the corals tend to do better. I have had problems in the past keeping the range too narrow and when the temp spikes or drops too far out of that range I have lost a lot. I also tend to run my tanks cooler. The tank at home runs around 75 during the winter.

 

[TheRealChrisBrown]

That's awesome. This is all news to me. Can you please explain how the offset code functions?

If I understand it correctly it is the +/- variation from the seasonal temp chart, which is located in the Apex somewhere. If you could find the chart you can manipulate the preset numbers. That might be the general gist of it...I'm sure others can clarify it better than my caveman explanation of it!

 

[SynDen]

That's awesome. This is all news to me. Can you please explain how the offset code functions?

Sure the offsets are fairly easy. Apex gives a sunrise/sunset time for each day. The offsets are just +/- number of minutes from those times. So my blues turn on 15min after the set sunrise time. The full lights turn on 285 min after the set sunrise time. Same goes for the sunset times, they are +/- the set sunset time

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[TheRealChrisBrown]

Sure the offsets are fairly easy. Apex gives a sunrise/sunset time for each day. The offsets are just +/- number of minutes from those times. So my blues turn on 15min after the set sunrise time. The full lights turn on 285 min after the set sunrise time. Same goes for the sunset times, they are +/- the set sunset time

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What about the temp function? Instead of minutes like with the lights....is it degrees? +- .4, or .8, or what ever value you set it as?

 

[SynDen]

What about the temp function? Instead of minutes like with the lights....is it degrees? +- .4, or .8, or what ever value you set it as?

Yep same concept just temp. The seasonal chart Apex provides gives a daily temp for the region. So the +/- variance it based on that daily temp. So in my case the heater turns on if my temp drops -.2 of a degree from that designated daily temp and turns off when it reaches the target temp.
Those temps and sunrise/sunset times are taken from somewhere in the Caribbean

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[SynDen]

Just for reference in case you don't know where to find the Season table in your Apex. You can only find it in the classic dashboard as far as I know, but its one of the main menu items on the classic dash. and looks like this, and as you can see it includes quite a bit of data for each day. You can set up your moon lighting to work with it as well, if you have the lunar module, so that it can vary the intensity of the moon lights based on the day as well as the rise/set times.

View attachment 14013

 

[kchristensen8064]

I'm going to throw a question out there. What ballasts are the halide guys using? I'm thinking about going a different route than the fixture I posted in another thread, because I think I will be better off with 250w halides over the 150w's. Still kicking it all around though, so I'm super curious about what ballasts are out there that are reputable and good.

 

[neil82]

I'm going to throw a question out there. What ballasts are the halide guys using? I'm thinking about going a different route than the fixture I posted in another thread, because I think I will be better off with 250w halides over the 150w's. Still kicking it all around though, so I'm super curious about what ballasts are out there that are reputable and good.

I think this depends partially on what bulb you want to run. For example, this link gives a good breakdown for radiums: https://premiumaquatics.com/articles/radium

 

[neil82]

The ballast that came with my Aqua Medic fixture is the original magnetic type. I believe it is similar to m80 or the German equivalent. I'm just learning about this stuff as I go. Hopefully someone with more experience can chime in with ballast recommendations.