lighting advice

[tropicfish]

I was hoping someone could give some advice about my lighting. I have a 75 gallon reef tank. I have a couple porites(christmas tree rock),acan,mushrooms,orange sun coral. I currently have corallife powercompact lighting. 2-65watt 10,000K daylight and 2-65 watt acintic. I was not sure about metal halides. I'm seeking advice because i'm not sure whether to upgrade to higher lights or if my lighting is ok.

 

[8BALL_99]

For what corals you have your light is fine. MH really isn't needed inless you have things like sps, clams ect. The fixture you have will keep most any soft coral and even a few lower light sps.

 

[llama72]

what about 4-65w 10k and 2-65w actinics?? Is this enough lighting for acan lords?

 

[tropicfish]

I was wondering about my porite corals. I just want to make sure they have enough light

 

[8BALL_99]

Acans are LPS. LPS corals dont really need a ton of light. Infact most like lower light. If you want SPS then look at MH, but for most anything else you dont really need it..

llama72.. If you have 6 Pc bulbs on a single 75 you might as well be running MH.. By the time you pay 22-27 bucks a bulb the power savings you get from pcs are burnt up in bulb changes.. 2 Mh bulbs only costs about 120. 6 Pc bulbs at 25 cost you 150.. Not a big deal, but your paying the same to run pcs as you would for MH. The only and I mean the ONLY reason I would run PCs if it was alot cheaper.

Tropicfish if you have very much sps then you will probably want Mh

HTH
Will

 

[tropicfish]

I have three porite corals...I know i've always heard how much hotter metal halides are, but i'm wondering from people who have kept them if with a 75 gallon tank how high i would need to keep them and how much it might raise my water temperature

 

[8BALL_99]

I had 2x250 Mh over a 72 gallon bowfront. I was able to keep my water at 80 with a room temp of 70. But I did evaporate alot of water. IMO a 75 isn't a great tank for MH. Not saying you can't do it.. But Heat will be a little bit of an issue if you go with 250s. Plus that tank is only 21 tall and 18 wide. A single Mh bulb is good for 24"x24" so thats alot of wasted light. The higher you have to raise the light for heat even the more light you waste. 150 watt Mh would be better as far as heat goes, But I dont think they would put out much more light then your current setup. I wouldn't replace the new fixture you have with 150s. Just don't think it would be worth it.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

I find a fixture with four 65W PC's to be just as hot as a metal halide fixture.

I have four 65W bulbs over my 75G FW planted tank and the temp goes up to 86 without having all the powerheads and a big return pump like I have on 120G. I have three large powerheads, a small powerhead for fuge, and a mag 12 return along with two 250W metal halide bulbs on 120G and the temp goes up to 86 degrees in the summer time with west sun beating on the side of the house that 120 is at. I keep my house temp to 78 in summer (temp automatically going to 82 when no ones at home.) This is only my own experience and YMMV.

However, my tank inhabitants (SPS dominated) have been healthy and happy looking despite the high temp. From what I read, the day and night temp fluctuation is not a big issue as long as either upper or lower temp does out to an extreme level.

I think that corals generally look prettier under a MH bulb than a PC bulb.

Tomoko

 

[jrthomas40]

i have 2x 250s over my 90 and my temp stays the same all the time...halides are a personal taste and a requirement IF you are unsure what corals you want in the long run....but if you know you are staying low light then no need to increase to burn more NRG...especially if you can change it over to a T-5 fixture if you want to get away from regular pcs

 

[gotdesl]

I was running 2x400w over my 75 at a height of 8 inches. With two 110 cfm fans blowing into the hood over the water, I evaporated about 5 gallons a day. This setup would maintain 79 degrees with a 72 degree ambient.

 

[llama72]

in reference to my PCs, I currently have them in a canopy. If i changed to MHs could i mount them inside the canopy.