What do you think about lights for hard coral?

[Jah2707]

I have a 40 gallon hex tank. It has about 50 pounds of live rock. and 10 gallon sump. Right now I have xena, shroom, zoans, and star and everything is looking great. The question I have it lights. Some day I would love some hard stuff and maybe a clam.

I have power compact lights current.

Coral life 65w 10,000 two months old.
jbl 65w 10,000 and 65w actinic
new mod for moon lights. (very cool)

In my mind that is 195 w of light. That would be almost 5 w per gallon. (I know there is no real calculator like that) Most people love mh and I would love to add one but the top of my tank is really full. I have no room left. Will my lights work for what i want to accomplish or will i need to replace them to do that.

Does anyone use only Power Compact with success on hard stuff?

 

[Jah2707]

Sorry I did not think the first one worked so I did it again then i realized that I just needed to refresh. If I could remove it I would

 

[triggerjay]

hex tanks are usually deeper than standard tanks... something you might want to take into consideration....Takes more light to get to the bottom....

Jason

 

[fewells]

I would use one 150 watt hqi 14k and that should be sufficient for most anything and it would free up the top of your tank. Plus you will get the glitter effect with the halide.

 

[SoupySteve]

I couldn't agree with fewells more. From the little research I did before I bought mine, I read that the HQI's give you the most intensity per watt you can get. I have two over my 110g - the softies and LPS were great ANYWHERE in the tank and the few SPS I do have do well in the upper 1/2 of the tank. You can see them (the lights) in some of the pics in my gallery if you want to see what they look like. I went with the Coralife pendants. After a couple of weeks, I decided to get 14K over the 10K... WOW. That change made EVERYTHING look better - and after a week or so, the BLUE was less noticeable. I could do a much neater install of them if I were to get up in my attic and run the power through the ceiling.

 

[Jah2707]

I will start looking and pricing a 150 watt hqi with 14k bulb. I love the look of my compacts right now but I would hate to limit myself in the future. thanks guys.

 

[Deadeye]

I got the mogul bulbs instead of HQI, work fine as far as I can tell, but I think the HQI are a little more intense. I got PFO pendants with IceCap e-ballasts. They work nice I have 250watt 20K's, but I am going to change to 250watt 12k reflux bulbs.

 

[Deadeye]

By getting the mogul bulb pendant I did get a bigger reflector though.

 

[Shaun120]

HQI fixtures do produce a more intense light. So Watt for Watt you get more from HQI. I’ve read that a 150w HQI puts out more light than a 175w SE.

The decision in lighting should be made based on the types of coral/inverts you want to keep and the depth of your tank. I ran 175HM SE for years and it did well for most all softies and some lower light requirement clams and LPS (75gal 4ft long). If you want to keep high light corals/inverts then you should definitely look into HQI, and a pendant for your tank would work well. Using a cooler K bulb can eliminate the need for actinic supplementation.

Lighting is one of those topics that no right answer exists. If you take in consideration the types of animals you want to keep and the depth of the tank (mainly the distance the subject will be from the light) you should be good to go. The moral of the story is everyone can have success with any type of lighting.