Which Bulbs

[Reef Monkey]

Hey Kevin quick question for you, I'm looking to put up 2 400 watt HQI MH, driven by a PFO ballast, along with 2 to 4 t-5's on my next tank. What are the ideal MH and T-5 bulbs that will not only produce a nice white look with a bluish tint but also produce the best overall growth for SPS corals? What type of bulbs do you run over your grow tanks? Thank you in advance for any help that you may be able to offer me.

 

[kevinpo]

Hello,
I run the Reeflux 10,000K bulbs with good results using 450nm t-5's for supplementation and dawn/dusk effect. The halide/ballast produces 170 PPFD which is enough to grow any high light SPS with proper placement.

HTH,
Kevin

 

[dailydriven911]

Kevin, what ballasts are you using for the reeflux 10k's?

 

[kevinpo]

I use PFO brand HQI ballasts.

Cheers,
Kevin

 

[Reef Monkey]

I'm still pretty new to the whole lighting thing. What does ppfd stand for?

 

[kevinpo]

What does ppfd stand for?

Good question.
Here is an excerpt from an excellent article on aquarium lighting by Sanjay and Dave Morgan. The entire article can be found at the link provided below.

"The units for PAR can be specified in energy terms or in photon terms. In energy terms, PAR is expressed as PAR Irradiance, which is the total energy in the PAR range (400 nm to 700 nm). The units of PAR Irradiance are watt/m2. When measured in photon terms, PAR is also called Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density (PPFD), which is a measure of the number of photons in the 400 nm to 700 nm waveband that are incident per unit time on a unit surface. When expressed in photon terms, all the photons are considered equal, independent of their energy. The quantity of photons is measured in moles of photons (1 mole of photons = 6.022 x 1023 photons = 1 Einstein). In practice, PPFD is measured in microEinstein/m2/second, or µE/s*m2."

http://www.personal.psu.edu/sbj4/aquarium/articles/MetalHalideLamps1.htm

Regards,
Kevin