HPS good for reef?

[shr00m]

i know MH is good for reef... i have a 150 watt HPS pendant light, other than being yellow... would it be good for anemone / corals?

 

[taikonaut]

Difference between HPS/MV and MH had been addressed in several threads, and one of the main issue with them is that the spectrum is not very good for the coral.

 

[Len]

The spectral output of HPS lighting is skewed towards red and yellow and does not make for good reef lighting. These wavelengths are readily filtered out in shallow water and most coral organisms are not accustomed to (nor can they utilize) these spectrums. The zooxanthallae found in anemones is the same as those found in corals. So what is bad for corals is bad for anemones

Your best bet is still true metal halides.

 

[shr00m]

ok thanks, ive heard its very easy to convert a HPS ballast to MH.... or get a MH conversion bulb, ive seen these also, i have a 400 watt hps ballast setup, maybe i should just get a MH conversion bulb which they do make thanks

 

[PeeJ]

why all the hps stuff? growin something you want to share?

 

[shr00m]

its from a friends old parking lot, security lights.

 

[Jolieve]

Yeah... security lights... sure... *grins at shroom, then ducks and runs for the hills*

J.

 

[shr00m]

i swear!!!

 

[PilotNY]

growin something you want to share?

Hehehehe Lets see. HPS lighting, alot of water. hummmm Sounds like he is in his basement alot.

 

[liquid]

i know MH is good for reef... i have a 150 watt HPS pendant light, other than being yellow... would it be good for anemone / corals?

Depends if you can find a bulb that will fire with that particular ballast and that the bulb is at minimum 5500 K or greater. IIRC the Venture 5500 K bulb *might* fire on a 150 watt HPS but I'm not sure. You'd have to find the ballast number and cross reference the ballast number with bulbs that will fire with that particular ballast.

Shane

 

[shr00m]

well ive seen mh conversion bulbs that are meant to fire in a hps ballast. i know i can get a 150 conversion bulb for the ballast , but i was thinking of going vho anyway to keep it cool.... right now i have normal fluro lighting and have about 1.5 watts per gallon, i have some polyps all over my l/r that just started growing, yellow polyps, and i have some shrooms, before i start getting any "real" coral i want to upgrade to vho . any suggestions? i was probally going to get something like a icecap, i have found a non icecap vho ballast that is much cheaper.

 

[liquid]

If you're going VHO, get the IceCap 660 ballast. It's a little more expensive than the 420 ballast but if you ever decide to upgrade you won't run into a wattage limit as quickly as you will w/ the 420 ballast.

Also, just as a FYI I've been running N.O. flourescents with my IceCap for close to 3 months and everything's doing very well. The bulbs I went with were two GE Dalyight 6500 K NO's from Home Depot ($5/bulb) and one VHO actinic and that's over a 4'x1'x1' tank housing soft coral and a couple LPS.

Shane