Lighting

I'm planning on using 3 250W Radiums...which apparently makes my choices of ballast very confusing.
As far as reflectors (pendants, in my case) I was initially looking at the LumenBrights, but I was told yesterday by Aquarium Specialty that these do not come with glass shields, and thats a must for me.
So I am now looking at the LumenMax 2s. Does anyone have recommendations here?

As for ballasts, I know that the 250W Radium is only "correctly" driven by an ...

Recently, I needed some actinic VHO bulbs for my tank. A found a couple of people in my local club ( www.dfwmas.org ) that needed the same kind, and we did a quick group buy from Marine Depot. Ordering 6 bulbs at once guaranteed free shipping, which is a plus. The order was placed on Wednesday and shipped out the same day. They arrived in a huge triangular box today in perfect condition.

I was very happy to install them tonight, and the blue really popped in my tank. My older bulbs ...

I have recently seen this new aquarium led light by ecoxotic. Looks beautiful on display but I have heard many things from different people that have never even own an led light system. I heard that they dont have the brightness to even make the coral grow. They will cost me over 2000 dollars to set up the system in my aquarium but i dont want to blow that money in something that is going to be useless. Has anyone here ever use leds as main lights instead of MH which is what Im running now? ...

Back in mid-2009, I did some testing because of the variety of reflectors people were asking about. This entry will be about the Lumenbright series as well as the LumenMax Elite.

From this angle, you can see how thick (tall) each reflector is. After all, how much room you have in the canopy dictates what fits and what doesn't.

I set up a hanger in the kitchen, centering the reflector's ...

So yesterday I was in the studio doing a photoshoot for a aquarium lighting manufacturer who hired me to shoot some product shots of a T5 & and a MH fixture. I had to remove the glass over the bulbs to cut back on the reflections created by the intense studio lighting. I ended up working on each fixture for a little over an hour each. And wrapped up the shoot and went home.

When I got home I noticed that my face and chest were red, but I thought it was just because I had just taken ...