metal halide or pc or vho or t5 or????

[vnon]

Which is the best lighting for reef? And I mean a thriving reef all types of corals and clams. My problem is that I have read so much on lighting that I am overwhelmed. I have a 55 gal reef and I want metal halides. I figure, from what I have read, two 175w. I have read that the people that like metal halides are the one's that already are stuck with them. Too much heat and too much electric bill. What about PC's, I have read someone say, why would they have that inferior lighting over there beautiful reef...they should have went metal halide. VHO's...a great website called GARF.com is growing insane reefs with VHO's. I am just looking for some opinions.

 

[hillbilly]

It takes many VHO's to equal MH. PC's suck for holding sps color. So, many VHO bulbs, or 2 MH? Which do you think is better for the wallet in the long run? By the way, 2 250watt HQI double ended lights on a 55gal. rocks. I've used this for a long time, no other lighting is needed. Hang them over the tank for no tank heating problems. My 2 cents.

 

[Apophis924]

I went from metal halides to VHO. the MH were too hard looking 10 and 20 K both did not apeal to my eye. went with VHO growth of corals and clams is still going good and the color is much better and no problems with temp control. Plus my VHO set up allows me many more options in bulb color temp then the MH. with MH you get 6.5K 10K, 12k, 14k and 20K wiht my VHO set up i can use any range from 6.5 K tubes up to 20K or anycombiantion in that range. something you cna t do wiht MH. and i dont miss the glitter lines got tired of them dancing on my ceiling anyhow.

 

[Anonymous]

It takes many VHO's to equal MH.

You might get some disagreement there by other members... however i do perfer MH over anything else..at the least supplement MH's with PC or VHO...I unfortunately do not do this given the lack of space in my one bedroom apt...to get around the MH heating problem, is hangin it higher..although you do lose some intensity but it keeps the temp down..i run 175W of MH over my 20gal at 10inches above the tank..I keep some good SPS without problems...I think at the bare min keeping SPS or clams in a tank over 24in in height is gonna be VHO.. i do strongly suggest MH....

 

[Apophis924]

I agree with Nikon, height of tank and type of livestock will determine your type of lighting rather than watts per gallon. I have clams and sps and run vho but my tnak is 16 inches deep at max add the rock work in and most of my livestock is within 10 to 10 inches of the light source.

 

[vnon]

Thanks guys for the quick responses. Hillbilly, isn't 2 250 w over a 55gal overkill. I thought 2 175w was more than enough.

 

[purplefirefish]

vnon, I have 2x175 over a 46 gal. I had trouble keeping any sps. They would lose their color and the growth rates were not very good. I now wish I would have gone with 2x250 instead. I no longer keep any sps or clams, but my lps are growing really good. just my .02

James

 

[hillbilly]

Not at all. No matter what lights we use, we can never really match the intensty of the sun on a shallow coral reef.

 

[Anonymous]

MH is more intense and nothing beats those glitter lines they make.

 

[myreeef]

My tank is a little bit bigger than yours, but it may be worth also looking into using more lower wattage MH with varying color temperatures.

In my case, I have 6 MH:
2 x 400w 10K
2 x 250w 14K
2 x 250w 20K

I have one of each color temperature basically hitting the same area of the tank. The thought here is that you are hitting the corals with more color temperature sensitive spikes.

Since doing this, most of my corals have really colored up well. I think that they are also growing faster, but cannot swear to that yet. I did this back in March/April based on a Steve Tyree presentation that really made sense to me.

I do not know the dimensions of your tank or what types of corals you have in mind for your reef, but you may want to consider 4 or 5 70w and/or 150w MHs with varying color temps. For examples of bulbs see:

http://www.hellolights.com/methallig.html

MHs are hot, so if you decide to go the MH route, you would also have to consider fans to cool your canope and possibly a chiller to cool your tank.

On a personal preference note: I started off with only 10 K's and found the color too yellow, I have a friend with 5 20 K's over his tank and found it way too blue (but he has real nice fluorescing (spelling?) of his corals). Since going to the multiple color temps, I get real nice fluorescing (just like my friend) and I find the overall color/ambience of my tank to be much more pleasing to my eye than any single color temperature tank I've seen to date.

There are other ways to setup your lighting, I'm just offering this as yet another setup to think about :twisted:

 

[Anonymous]

Halide combined with some kind of florescent is a great way to go. The halides being a point source will create distinct shadows, which the florescents fill in somewhat. If you have sps I think it helps them to not have such shadowy spots.

 

[Tackett]

Ive been using power compacts for a long time and found that it is very hit and miss, some things seem to do very well and some things dont like them. I have 209 watts of power compact on my little 29 gallon reef. But for the money I dont think you can beat PC's watt for watt, Metal Halides are super expensive (so are the bulbs). But if money is no object I would run both PC and MH. Run actinic and 10000K bulbs in the PC's or just strait actinic. Also I would set them on timers seperatley so that the PCs come on a little over an hour before the MH's. My two cents.