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3K views 8 replies 2 participants last post by  caferacermike 
#1 ·
I am currently shopping around for a new system and ran across a jebo system on ebay. Has anyone ever heard of them and if so are they descent?
 
#2 ·
My good friend Matt sells them at www.thehobbypalace.com

I have quite a few units around. Not exactly NASA equipment. I loved my 48" MH/PC fixture until I learned what I was missing. The lights are to far apart and have tiny little reflectors. Their is anothe guy hand building lights on Ebay far cheaper. I'll help you look for him if you want. I can find awesome deals all the time used as well. Do you have a canopy? Would you be willing to use one? I can get "retrofit" kits brand new including the bulb for $180 You'd probably want 2x 250w MH if that was what you wanted. Right now I have an offer for 2x250w used for about $150. Retro kits are only a ballast, socket and reflector (both i just listed include the bulb) and you basically just screw the reflector to the top of the canopy.
 
#3 ·
Thanks, I think I'm going to build a canopy anyway so I might go with the retro kits. If you could do that it would be great. I have been on ebay for 2 days looking around.
 
#4 ·
My 2-250watts retro kit just arrived. Now I'm just waiting for my canapy. I thought about mixing my current fixture with my MH, I was going to put all actinics in the fixture, but looking how bright the 2 MH make the tank look I might just stick with just 2 250's. What do you guys think I should do.
 
#5 ·
If you can do keep the actinics. Actinics in the 420-460 ranges help feed the zooanthallae algae in the corals. Also you can run a better timer set up. Basically set it up so that the supplemental flouro lighting comes on for 2-3 hours and then add in the MH lighting. MH loses it's peak after 6 hours. As in the corals are maxed out after that much light. So you can continue running them if you like the look and don't mind paying the few extra pennies to keep them on. Then follow your MH with another hour or two of flouro. This prevents "shocking" the critters when the sun suddenly clicks on.

My set up.

11:00am 200w PC actinics.
3:00pm 500w MH 14K comes on with the PC's Total 700w
10:00pm Halides off.
10:45 lunar LED's on. Can't see them at this point but I want the overlap
11:00pm PC's off

That's on my 75g.

Keep in mind that bulb choice is critical with halides. What K did you get? I hope nothing more than a Pheonix 14k or Hamilton 15K or your tank will be really blue. It's best to stay in the whites with halides and use supplemental actinic. 20K's will be extremely blue and your corals won't grow. They'll thrive but not grow.

For my 400g I bought, I'm preparing for 5x 250w HQI 10K in Lumenarc reflectors (they are so good you can skimp a bit on lighting) with approx 2x 250w HQI 20K and about 600w PC actinics. That's about 2,350w total. That's a lot less than I want but I can't afford any more electricity. Since the tank is 36" deep I'm planning on keeping all of my coral in the upper half of the tank as if it was a 125g tank. The bottom will be bare for fish.


Congratulations on the awesome new lighting. Be careful at first. The halides could irritate the corals until they adjust. You should figure out a way to raise the lighting 2 feet above the water and slowly lower it a few inches a week over a month. Another method is to put aluminum window screen over the tank. Try to go about 6 layers thick. Try and replicate the original lighting and then remove a layer a week slowly bringin on the full lighting.
 
#6 ·
This are the pics from my new canapy, I had bought 2 extra bulbs for my fixture and never used them. Glad I bought them now. But when I was taking the fixture apart one bulb dropped, didn't break but the bulb doesnt work now, so I placed a 10000K bulb in there for now. The MH are warming up so there not that bright.

 
#8 ·
I don't know why I didn't go that way from the start.
 
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