Light advice

[twabatman2004]

Im back into the hobby (lord help me :crazy1 after about a 6 year absence. I just picked up a 75 gallon setup. It already has 4 54watt t5's. 1 10k, 2 actinic, and 1 fiji purple. I have 2 new 175 watt 10k hallides Im going to add tomorrow and crank them up once everything gets cycled. I plan on replacing the t5's with all actinics except I will probably leave the fiji purple in there. It will be a prodominant sps tank. Any thoughts? Kinda excited to be back in the game

 

[twabatman2004]

Anyone?

 

[reefermad619]

Ditch the halides and a couple of led strips. Use some decent chips and you get good shimmer and great par.

 

[twabatman2004]

I can't really afford the whole led thing. besides I paid hardly next to nothing for the halides and the 4 t5's came with it.

 

[reefermad619]

Gotcha! I would use halides, or the T5s. But not both. 4 t5s with Ati bulbs and you have some pretty good light to keep most softies and lps. Sps will do well in the very top of the tank. I live in San Diego. We've got some of the highest electric rates in the country. So power consumption is always on my mind. But if you don't care, hell, run em all and keep clams and Sps anywhere you want!

 

[twabatman2004]

Gotcha! I would use halides, or the T5s. But not both. 4 t5s with Ati bulbs and you have some pretty good light to keep most softies and lps. Sps will do well in the very top of the tank. I live in San Diego. We've got some of the highest electric rates in the country. So power consumption is always on my mind. But if you don't care, hell, run em all and keep clams and Sps anywhere you want!

Yeah, power is'nt too crazy around here. We have been running our heat for about a month and it was only $96 last month without the tank and has been as low as $50 or so. I plan on only running the halides for around 5-6 hours to try to keep the power bill under control as well as the heat in the tank. It looks dang good with all the bulbs running too!