As you probably saw, have sold my Arcadia unit to skippy and am upgrading to 3 X 400w units using the new Lumenarc type reflectors.

The Arcadia unit is a cracker, but as I really like sps (I know Reef, so last year :lol: ) and hope to get better penetration down to the bottom of the tank to allow sps to grow and colour up at increased depth, and also get better throw of the light with the reflectors.

I've picked up the lights, reflectors and ballasts today, and organised some heavy duty timers and the sparkie at work is setting up a board with 3 outlets. I've made a tube frame to be suspended over the tank, which the reflectors will attach to and the ballasts etc sit on top of.

Should have all the bits tomorrow so will post picks of it in bits, and then assembled and over the tank. Looking forward to seeing the difference.

Good luck and please post pics. I'm getting one this weekend and would be keen to see how you did the mounting of yours.

Would also be very interesting to have some comparison pictures a few months after the upgrade.

I'm hoping nicks will post pics of his as his acro's are looking stunning in just 4 weeks

I'm hoping nicks will post pics of his as his acro's are looking stunning in just 4 weeks

certainly made the biggest improvement to my tank so far.

Heres the bits and pieces before assembly.....hope to assemble tonight and hang it up in the morning.

hurry up what are you mucking around at?

well here they are in place and going, and the result is awesome. I really like the colour, and there are whole tank is lit, no dark areas.

Brilliant!!!

wow you got those sitting high! mine are about half that height.. but then you gotta larger tank though i guess nice!

gotta start a bit high so you dont shock the corals

yeah i know, but thats pretty damn high and he had reasonably good lighting before that too

puttputt - before and after shots of the tank itself?

old bulbs

wow....those lights are seriously the ultimate!

Steve's right. they will come down,(note the extra chain Chim) but there is a seriously high amount of light, and even at that height, it is shocking the leather at the moment.

Chim, thanks for the PM, I'll be responding soon . The tank looks great and the colours even better - very, very pleased so far.

That looks way cool!

Question: Why put the ballasts on the metal frame? Keeps them out of the way but I'd be concerned about the extra weight, and the heat from the bulbs.

The metal frame was made strong!!!, specifically to carry the ballasts, and keep it tidy, the lights reflect the heat down, not much heat being generated up. The frame has wire mesh on it, to allow circulation.

Looks stink man i reckon ud be better off wif only T8's

Infact i think when you swap to T8's you should let me take it off your hands

It's definately giving my some ideas for how to setup mine.

Thanks for sharing

Very nice.

Can you take another picture from back further?

Just want to see how the look.

thanks

Nice setup mate......very cool.

Mmmm...I can see an upgrade on the way.....

:-?

Thanks all. Duke, I was back as far as I can get in my little room .

I am stunned at the way these bulbs have brought the colours out in my corals. The blues and greens are glowing, the purples much more pronouced, its great. :bounce:

Hope to take some pic's when i borrow the camera from work, mines just a little fine pix rubbish thing. Need a better one.

You should get a big spread of light with the big reflectors.

Corals to tend to look better with a bit of blue, however whilst the arcadia bulbs are more white you do tend to get better growth but the corals look more washed out,

The narva 14k bulbs are really weak so you dont get great growth, they tend to have a low par rating. so there is always a trade off between looks and growth.

Found 400w bulbs are not that bright as i still have to run 8 x t5s. might try the iwasaki 6500k, but that would mean changing to mercury vapor ballast.

i still think 250w De bulbs are almost as bright as a SE 400w.

Are you running any glass covers?? pretty risky without them.

Just have to see how the growth goes with these bulbs.

Don't have covers but do I need them, I thought only DE needed glass for UV protection.

These lights are considerably brighter, visually anyway, than the arcadias were even when they were new, and this is with them being so high at the moment.

you dont need glass, however get some water on them and they will end up in the tank.

ok, thought that might be the reason, just have to hope scar doesn't splash them

Man they look great dude awsome job.