metal halide question
- Thread starter ravedood
- Start date
Ding2daDong
New member
You could do t5's and I have a 48" 4bulb tek fixture for sale if you want to go that route. It would be enough light to keep any coral you want and not add much heat to the tank. If you want metal halides then it would go 150 or 175w. They would add heat to your tank though.
hth
-Matthew
hth
-Matthew
You could do either T5 or MH like Matt said. his lights are a good deal if you're interested in doing T5s. Otherwise a MH fixture is going to be expensive if you don't have a hood. If your tank has a hood, then a retrofit isn't very expensive and shouldn't be difficult to do. It all depends on what you want to do. They're both going to create heat, but if you ventilate your hood or go topless with a fixture, it'll cut down the heat emitted a lot.
macawmagic
In Memoriam
i had t5's...now have mh's. I like the t5's as the didn't heat the water up as much, but I prefer the colors from the mh's. maybe I just had the wrong bulbs with the t5's but everything colored up 10x with the mh's. don't get me wrong, everything looked good under the t5's, just imho better under the mh's.
ravedood
Active member
Right now since I only have the 2 65 watt compact florescent and 2 48" VHO Ill probably upgrade to 2 more VHO lamps because my ballast can support up to 4 lamps. I have a separate ballast for the compact florescent. I really don't want to have a heat issue on my hands so Ill stay away from the MH lamps for now. What color temperature should I get the 2 other VHO lamps? 10K?
macawmagic
In Memoriam
if you put fans in the canopy to take the heat out...maybe 2 on each side, then you shouldn't have that much of a problem with the mh's. with t5's in a canopy you'll need fans to remove the heat also. I had a successful 55g. under 4 vho's. at one point sps were thriving, but they didn't make it due to some other factors. theres someones tank down here(can't remember his name) but it would have to be on of the most amazing tanks i've ever seen and it's a 55g with 4 vhos. tons of softies, lps, and even sps. very simple setup too! hopefully someone could chime in. I'd say copy his setup to the T! lol
loyalrogue
New member
I'm running VHO on my 125g.
The setup right now is 2 UV brand Actinic White and 1 UV brand Super Actinic.
The two best options for a 4-bulb setup IMO would be 2 Actinic White and 2 Super Actinic, or 3 Actinic White and 1 Super actinic.
The first option would probably give you a better overall appearance and fluoresing of coral colors, but the second would probably give more growth.
Again, just my opinion as I haven't tried it out for myself.
I've been debating whether to add a second ballast and more VHO to my canopy, or to add a second ballast with some T5's... I'm leaning toward the T5's after seeing this setup using nothing but T5's: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1215102&perpage=&pagenumber=1
The setup right now is 2 UV brand Actinic White and 1 UV brand Super Actinic.
The two best options for a 4-bulb setup IMO would be 2 Actinic White and 2 Super Actinic, or 3 Actinic White and 1 Super actinic.
The first option would probably give you a better overall appearance and fluoresing of coral colors, but the second would probably give more growth.
Again, just my opinion as I haven't tried it out for myself.
I've been debating whether to add a second ballast and more VHO to my canopy, or to add a second ballast with some T5's... I'm leaning toward the T5's after seeing this setup using nothing but T5's: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1215102&perpage=&pagenumber=1
ahoyhoy239
Member
i think macawmagic is talkin about rrigau, not sure. i do know what tank hes talking about though and yes it is a great looking 55g!
racermike27
Premium Member
When I had my 55G I had 2X250watt SE 14K halides over the tank. There was a significant increase in heat vs. when I had the pc's over it before. I had to get a chiller in the end to keep the tank around 76F. In addition to the use of 3 PC fans mounted within the canopy. The colors were much nicer to me under the halides though vs. the pc's.
Right now over my 90G I run 250SE 10K halides w/ VHO URI Actinics.
Color and growth is nice on my current setup.
-Mike-
Right now over my 90G I run 250SE 10K halides w/ VHO URI Actinics.
Color and growth is nice on my current setup.
-Mike-
flfireman1
Wrasse aficionado
First off, what kind of corals are you looking to grow? If your looking for softies and some LPS you might be fine with what you have. I had a 55 gallon with 2 110w VHO from URI and I grew LPS and softies just fine. If you want to get into SPS then your going to have to look into MH or T5's.
macawmagic
In Memoriam
yea i was talking about rrigau's tank. amazing!
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