dont no what kind of lighting to get

shellzreef

New member
There are so many different kinds of lights. Which kind do I get? MH, PC, VHO, ..?? How do i know which one to get? I want to do mainly SPS. Iv done a bunch of reading, but still don't know what to do. Right now I have a coralife PC 50/50, OHhh and its only a 36" , my tank is 48" ....a friend gave it to me to use till i buy a light. Its a 75 AGA with overflow. I have plenty of room to suspend lights not an issue. If i wanted to do LPS would I use different light?
 
with sps I would go 250 or preferrably 400w mh. 14k spectrum looks grat for sps.
 
There are so many different kinds of lights. Which kind do I get? MH, PC, VHO, ..?? How do i know which one to get? I want to do mainly SPS. Iv done a bunch of reading, but still don't know what to do. Right now I have a coralife PC 50/50, OHhh and its only a 36" , my tank is 48" ....a friend gave it to me to use till i buy a light. Its a 75 AGA with overflow. I have plenty of room to suspend lights not an issue. If i wanted to do LPS would I use different light?

MH or T5.

I like the look of MH over T5's(even though I have T5's atm), both will work.

250's would be fine for that size tank for MH.

For T5's look for active cooling and individual reflectors.

*edit* Forgot to add...most LPS will do great under intense lighting, just make sure you acclimate them slowly.
 
x2.
MH is a good thing for sps and for crocea clams. Plus it gives you that nice ripple-sparkle. I've used 10k quite successfully for lps. Great growth.
Also look into putting kalk into your topoff system: hand-dosing for sps is a pita, and a 75 g tank can run beautifully off a kalk system. Just spoon Mrs Wages Pickling lime into your topoff vat (you have to lid it, to prevent crusting) after you have 'set' your calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium levels by hand-dosing. The lime will keep your levels rock-steady until the magnesium runs out, so you can run quite a long time without having to dose. For me, with a 32 gallon topoff reservoir, it's about every 30 days that I have to intervene. Kalk-dripping mimics the ocean's natural dissolving of limestones and dead corals, and while putting a 'pickling' substance into your tank sounds alarming, it's perfectly natural and safer than most additives.
 
T5HO w/ individual parabolic reflectors imo, less heat and power. It is all about the PAR of the bulbs. Many T5HO bulbs can give the same output as MH.
 
humm ok.....so MH....these are the bulbs that cant be touched..right? and where can i get Pickling lime? .........thank you for your input
 
you can get pickling lime in a store that sells canning supplies :)

I'd go MH :)

Get 2 pendants to hang in a hood. either two 175w or two 250w ones :)
 
T5HO .....stay cooler? MH gets very hot right? are these kinds comparable in price? the reflectors are just as important as the light im finding. If I do go MH can I buy a housing from home depot, reflector it my self, and get the bulb from somewhere eles? Would it even be cheaper that way? Im not to worried about the heat, tanks in the basement wall, has a whole room behind it. Its always cold back there, I have problems keeping the tank warm enough. I actually cut a whole in my heater vent to get sum heat back there.
 
I like T5s (until LEDs become viable and a little cheaper) lotsa folks like the MH lights but they generate alot of heat and eat alot of power. The heat isn't necessarily the heat in the room that they are referring to they are referring to heating your tank.
 
hummm so what is the difference between T5 and MH?? just the look? does one use less power then the other?


thanks for all the answers guys
 
I like my LumenMax Elites with 250w 14K Pheonix HQI bulbs. 180 gallon stocked with SPS and LPS. The reflectors are mounted inside a canopy, which requires fans for cooling. I think having LPS in a 75 gallon tank, 250w bulbs would be sufficiant. IMO
 
hummm so what is the difference between T5 and MH?? just the look? does one use less power then the other?


thanks for all the answers guys
almost at 50!! yeahhhh just realized that! :spin1::spin1:
:beachbum:
 
T-5

T-5

I went with T-5 mainly because I did not want to have to run a chiller (not always necessary but a strong possibly). T-5's just seemed like less work and expense.
 
hummm so what is the difference between T5 and MH?? just the look? does one use less power then the other?


thanks for all the answers guys
almost at 50!! yeahhhh just realized that! :spin1::spin1:
:beachbum:

T5 uses less power and runs cooler, I believe the bulbs last 12 months or so. I think Mh bulbs need to be replaced aver 6-9 months, though someone with more experience can confirm it.
 
T5 uses less power and runs cooler, I believe the bulbs last 12 months or so. I think Mh bulbs need to be replaced aver 6-9 months, though someone with more experience can confirm it.

6-9 months....ok i gotta find that out! once a year isnt tooo bad on T5. What do people think is a type or brand of bulb that will give the best and longest life?
 
Problem with MH is heat and expense. I just went through this. I was completely up in the air if I should go T-5 or Mh and decided T-5. Ive seen plenty of SPS dominated tanks under T-5s. Ive also seen clams thriving 25 inches away from certain T-5 fixtures.

the argument with MH lighting for SPS and clams is the MH light is the closest replica to natural sunlight, same thing with LED's. But like I said, ive seen many T-5 tanks growing beautiful SPS colonies. Mh also create that shimmer effect which is nice, but if you disrupt your surface a little bit youll get a little shimmer with any light.

If you go with a 48'' Mh light at 250 watts you can expect to pay almost double with bulbs as opposed to a 48'' T-5 fixture. Not including cost of a chiller. Believe me ive thought about this lol. I just got an 8 bulb at 54 watts tek light from reef geek. I plan to grow SPS in my tank.

im prettty sure mh bulbs will last 12-18 months.
Good luck.
 
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