Help me...halides

30galreefkeepr

New member
My situation is this, I have no problems with lighting...i have a 30 gallon tank with power compacts on it...i've got 5.2 watts per gallon at the moment.

I'm really attracted to metal halides though, and i've found an affordable hood with a 150 watt 20k metal halide bulb.

If I do this i'm going to still use the actinic on my existing power compact which should put me around 8 watts per gallon, is this going to really help the growth of my corals? and What can i expect as far as quality of light? Any help would be much appreciated, THANKS.
 
20k bulbs are very blue, supplementing it with aticnics will just make it bluer, you are probably better off using the daylight pc's to supplement the halides
 
I agree. 20K bulbs are often used in place of needing atinic suppliments. One thing is for sure, with a 20K bulb things sure do glow :)
 
the 20k will not really help with growth because they are so blue about like the color of your actinics, you may want to go with a 10k for better growth
 
The 150w halide is probably a good fit for a 30g tank (I've got 250w on a 37g oceanic cube, and it runs hot). If you don't care for the color or don't get the growth you want from the 20k bulb just drop back to 14k or 10k when you change bulbs.
 
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