Lighting advice

My preference is a 250W 14k Hamilton/Ushio. With 250W you save yourself a little bit as far a heat from a 400W and expense. My 210 is 29" deep and these bulbs are more than enough for my tank. I also use Lumenark reflectors with it. I use 3 of these over my tank.

 

Robyn, I'm not sure what kind of ballasts to get but I do know the electronic ballasts are more effecient than the magnetic ones. I like the look of the XM 20k's they are blue though. I have also read very good things about the 14k lamps too.   Does that Tek fixture have SLR's in it or is it one big reflector?  If it has SLR's it wwould not be to hard to retro the lamps and stager them.

 

ice cap ballast's are supposed to be top notch. They're electronic, and have a good reputation.

 

Robyn

Due to the depth of the 210 gallon tank you are probably going to need the 400w bulbs to get the light all the way to the bottom. You can run the 250w bulbs as long as you keep light lovers a little higher in the tank. In terms of power costs, expect a significant increase for several reasons. The added heat load on your house is going to cost you all summer in a/c time. Going to 3-400w lights is going to throw a lot of heat off and will likely require a chiller unelss you have a large basement sump (which should be accompanied by a de-humidifier). There are several factors to look at. Personally the MH are worth it to me for the aesthetics of the shimmer. Even at 250w I have to run a chiller three or four months out of the year. Also, your pump size will likely increase as well, which of course uses a bit more power. If you know what all of your equipment is going to be we can see if we can come up with its wattage and do an estimation of what it will cost to operate daily.

Billy

 

I am running a stock tank right now for a sump. It works out well. My only complaint is the fact that I can not control the water better. By this I mean I would like to have the water from the protein skimmer return to the tank, but as it is now it just mixes with all the water.

I run XM 20k 250w on a PFO M59 ballast. I supplement with VHO actinics. My MH are not that blue on the ballast I am running, and I like the florescense of the actinics and VHO's together. When I finally get the fish room finished I will run 250's, keeping lower light corals toward the bottom. By the way that tank will be 27" deep, which is borderline on 250w lights by most peoples opinion.

Billy