Lighting Help

[ndorfn]

I have a 70(long) gallon tank that is 20" deep. I am thinking of a MH 2x250 watt with 4xactinic. Would this be overkill for keeping LPS, zoo, etc. and maybe SPS in the future? Also if it was needed could I replace the 250watt MH with a 150watt MH bulb?

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[Krish]

I ran dual 250's over my 75gal and it was fine...If you feel it is a bit too much wattage, you can ditch the actinics and use metal halide bulbs with a kelvin rating of about 12K to 20K depending on how blue you want it and get all the blue you want that way. I ran 20K Xm's and it was real blue...No need for actinics. As for using a 150w bulb in a 250w setup, it wouldn't work as far as I know. The ballast much match the bulb

 

[ndorfn]

Thank you for the reply.

 

[Brenden]

I would ditch the antics and just go with a 20k bulb. A 150w bulb will not work on a 250w ballast.

 

[Snowboarda42]

Looks pretty good to me, You might have to end up messing with the photo period and the placement in the beggining.

Reason being, the corals may not be used to the 250W lights so quickly, so you might put them all on the bottom, and run the Actinics all the time, raise the Halides up a bit, and have a shorter run time on the Halides. Then in a week move the halides down, again and again every 3-4 days, until you get them the distance you want from the top. Then increase your run time on them until its what you want, then move the corals up slowly to where you want them placed.

Just a thought...

 

[ndorfn]

Thank you all for the advice. I am going to try the 250 MH w/ the actinics for now. If i change to 20k or something else I can always turn the actinic off. I was just worried about that being to much light for my tank.

 

[farid2544]

What's the difference between a 10k, 15k and 20k Metal Halides? Is it just the color?

 

[mojoreef]

Basically yes. The higher the K the bluer the lights look to the human eye. Sunlight is around 5500K

Mike

 

[farid2544]

I currently have 2 10k T5 and 2 Actinic T5 with a Pair of 250W Halides 10k. If I choose all Actinic T5s and 20k Halides, would that just give the tank a blue color without any negative effects to corals? Or do they need white lights too? I have SPS, LPS, and soft corals.