Helios 4X55 PC

I'm getting my Helios 4X55 PC light fixture today, with 2 10,000K Daylight and 2 Actnitic 03 bulbs.

I was wondering how long should I keep the lights on? I don't have any corals yet just a couple clownfish

 

Anyone???

Also, what are the benefits of having an open top tank? I'm afraid dust or critters in the air might get in my tank :-/

 

Hey JP -

You got that cool fixture with legs we were talking about a couple weeks ago in the lighting section? Cool! :thumbsup1:

Your call, I would say 8-10 hours then maybe bump it up to 10-12 hours a day when you are stocked.

- better oxygen exchange
- better view! it rocks!
- easier maintenance
- easier to feed ;D

Dust is not a big deal. A little filter floss and/or prefilter sponge or carbon will take care of polishing the water.
Critters in the air = fishfood! ;D

Don't sweat it. You will love it when you are staring down at your corals! :thumbsup2:

As get used to it, let me know what you think of that light (lighting spectrum, etc), seemed like a helluva deal!

 

Now I know what you mean by "when you get used to it"
It's much different than my previous setup (cheapo 2X15W) and it does take getting used to.  For one the rock looks totally different because the detail is much more clear to see, I'm very picky and I it seems every single crumb or particle in the water looks 10 times bigger.  Everything seems to look kind of yellow and it's very bright, actually tires your eyes when looking into the tank for a couple minutes.  Is this normal because the bulbs might be breaking in or something?
Would it be better to change my black background to blue? i think this is why it's looking so yellow because of the rock and the black background.

I assume I will now get some more corraline algae right?
Sorry for all the silly questions, but I want to be sure,

Thanks...I'll post some pics soon

 

WOW!

Night and day!

:thumbsup1:


Wow you might have just sold a few of those lights.

Maybe your tank is bright enough now that you have noticed your water is yellow? Run some carbon and see if it goes away. A blue background would help too I bet

 

By the way, I had trouble seeing those photos until I opened it in Netscape 6. You might want to add the links at the bottom in case others are having trouble too.

Not sure what that means. I will experiment with some code and see if I can find a fix. Actually scatch that, looks like my buddie's net6 doesn't show it. I guess it wasn't until I loaded the pic url in my browser that I started to see it. Sigh... Time for me to find a good pic site for everybody... anway...

THAT LIGHT FIXTURE IS FREAKIN' AWESOME!  :thumbsup:

 

and the the cool thing is like you said, the top is totally open. I ran some carbon and the yellow has disappeared...or my eyes have adjusted oh_no

My LFS, which has been pretty good, recommended that i run these lights for only 5-6 hours a day for the first 2 weeks (to prevent an algae bloom) while doing a dawn to dusk effect. What do you think? ???

Unfortunately (the only complaint :-[), the ballast only has one A/C cord coming out from it. Even though it has seperate on/off switches for the daylight and Actnitic 03's, this does not allow to run the dawn/dusk with timers,it has to be done manually.

Well just in case somebody couldn't see the pics:

http://www.photo.net/photodb/image-display?photo_id=977986&size=md
http://www.photo.net/photodb/image-display?photo_id=977976&size=md

 

Cool about the yellow. Yeah - open tops rule!

I would say that's fine .. I went longer because you have some clownfish - they probably would appreciate a longer day.

Huh? I guess there has to be an achilles heel. Heh. Call an electrician!

For the record, Internet Explorer is treating the photo.net URL as a file.... clicking on the link doesn't work, I had to use Netscape. I will do my homework and resolve this once and for all. If I have to, I will make a photo upload section here, just worried about having to pay a lot for server space. I'll figure it out...

 

SCREW THIS PHOTO.NET CRAP!

HERE ARE YOUR PICS JPfish!! :thumbsup1:

Before:


After:


Jeez oh_yeah


Too cool.

 

Taking another look at em...

Man those are lights are going to cost you, now you are going to have get all black furniture, a black tank and stand to be as cool as those lights! ;D :razz: ;D :razz: :-X

Oh man, sorry! couldn't resist ... I going to hell... i_am_in_hell