MH vs HQI

[stonepilot]

tank will be 18 inches deep, but my real question is which do you feel is better and why. thanks for all help

 

[mojoreef]

HQI just have a few more watts, I believe in the case of a 250 watt hqi it is acutally 280 watts, so you get a little over drive. With a tank as shallow as yours I dont see it as needed, unless you have a deeper tank planned in the future.

Mike

 

[Maxx]

With an 18 inch deep tank the absolute most I would consider running over it would 250 watt SE/Mogul based bulbs. In all actuallity, you'd be fine with either 175 watt MH's or even T-5 lighing.

Too much light can be a bad thing....

Nick

 

[tike]

I would go with the 175watt. I had a 20 gallon 16" deep with a 250 watter hanging 12" above it and it bleached my open brain coral laying on the bottom in semi shade. That taught me the Lighting most definately has it's limits.

I have since placed it in a tank with just pc lighting and it is recovering quite nicely!

 

[bc_slc]

I agree with above, unless you plan to upgrade/upsize in the future (which most of us do). I would continue with the 250w setup, but run an electronic ballast as Mojo mentioned above. I say this and have a 250w DE, HQI setup on my tank, but it is 30" deep.

 

[Maxx]

I run dual 250 DE's over my 21 inch 58 gallon, and my lights are currently 12 inches off the top of the water to compensate for too much light. I'd reccomend the Icecap or another E-ballast as well. They give you the versatility to run almost any bulb, (XDE's are the only exceptions I'm aware of) and are lighter in weight which allows you more flexibility to place them where you want.

Nick