lps lighting questions

[zombiereef]

i am setting up a 180g soon and am going to stock it with some common lps corals. i like torches, frogspawns, anchors etc.... maybe dabble with some blastos or acans. the question is: what kind of light do these corals really flourish under? i dont want to "overlight" the tank and want to go with what would make them thrive, but not overdo it. would 3, 150w 10k HQI's & 4, 3' vho's (2 of them 50/50 and other 2 actinics) work for my plan? would 250w mh's be better? i am guessing that 400w bulbs would be way overkill. any input would be great. maybe swap the vho's with HO t5's???

 

[zombiereef]

also, does anybody have any good links to sites that have really in-depth descriptions about different lps corals ( light requirements, areas where they are found, etc...). i have limited access to the search functions here.

 

[blange3]

How deep is the 180?

I would go with all actinic VHO's. The URI/now UV actinics will give the colors of these corals the best pop. You don't want to over do the halides, so depending on the depth you would make that choice.

I have a 75 gal LPS tank and I run all VHO. The colors are great and growth is steady but not dramatic.

 

[zombiereef]

the tank is 24" deep. that is why i ask. it seems that if i ran 3-150w mh bulbs and a few vho/t5HO actinics it might be a good choice for an all lps tank. i like the mh's because of the shimmer effect. i had one on my nano and it was awesome. i used a 10k hamilton bulb and i got good growth from my bubble, frogspawn and torch corals. of course it was a pretty shallow tank. the frog started off green w/ purple tips and the tips wound up fading out to light green/tan. i blame that on the mh too close to the coral. i think that with the smaller mh's the actinics would have more impact.