250w or 400w?

[shallowreef]

Well i know that HQI 250 have more PAR than a 400w single ended so maybe i could get away with 250s? The only reason i question the 400s is because if i do start to grow SPS i don't want to have to keep them all at the top of my tank. I would like to spread them out to different depths.

 

[Scooterman]

Almost Nick but your missing the point, first HQI or regular could out perform the 400 watters IF your comparing a 250W 10K to a 400W 20K, that is a comparison. The Point I'm trying to make is the Kelvin (K) can make a major difference in what you would want to get. If you want the higher K lamps like 13K, 14K or even the 20K lamps to get more of a blues effect then you would hands down be better off with the 400 watters over the 250 watters pushing the same (K). hope you understand this, once you decide what you want as for as color/looks then you can determine what you need to get the most out of what you pay for. Make sense?
Now the heat, 400's from what I'm told & read will put out considerable more heat to deal with. You have a 70 degree basement to work with so that helps, & you may be just fine with a few key fans in place but I can't say that you will not ever need a chiller for sure.
HTH! "

 

[Scooterman]

Oh as not to confuse any more, the reason why I compared to the whiter 10k's because you can go with the 10K's get the higher performance & add supplemtation to get the colors you like. It seems these days people are driven by colors & what they like first, so I'm using that as basis to help you get the most out of what you want,
sounds funny but If you don't like the looks of your lights you won't be happy.

 

[SueT]

I have my sps placed all over my tank not only in the top of my rock structure. I my my plating montipora more so towards the bottom so when they grow out they do not shade any acropora. I have my stags in the fartherest part of the rock towards the back and my regular cluster growth acropora spaced all over the place. Not all acropora need to have the highest lighting. There are plenty that can handle less intense lighting. Still halides though.

 

[morgan]

when u go diving in the wild most things are brown unless u take a light with u then u can gadge a real clour of what u will be looking at in ur tank i got a peices of monti i thought was just brown put it under my 14000k 400watt and its green as grass just cause ur corals go brown dosent mean anything bad just that its changing zoaxanthella theres atleast 14 strains of the symbiotic algea imo sum with grow better under differnt K levels but if u want the most effective growth 10k are ur best best its closer to natural light supplemnt with antic lights for ur coral and u will get more of ur blue i run 14s and i think its blue enough 10s might look a little brown but look more realistic to a diver
im going to skip this whole problem and just but skylights in my roof can beat sunlight, also when u see a sunlit tank u can tell how much more happyer satisfyed the corals are

 

[Bainic]

Go with the 400s.

 

[shallowreef]

Well after talking it over with my LFS for quite a while i decided to go with 400s after all. We figured that with as much flow as i have in my tank and the tank being in the basement, and the controller to shut the lights off if the tempature gets too high. I could very easily run 20k 400w over my tank. The worst that could happen is i would have to get a chiller. Right now Hamilton is having a 10% off sale on their stuff so i think i am going to order it either tommorow or Saturday.

 

[Scooterman]

If you can get the 12K reeflux I would use them, they will be very blue & still have more pumch the the 20K's, you won't see that much difference in the color.

 

[shallowreef]

Really? Where can i find them?

 

[Scooterman]

http://www.customaquatic.com/customaquatic/subsubcategorypage.asp?subcatindexID=lt-rmhb-40

 

[shallowreef]

I'm going with HQI, and those are all single ended.