which lighting setup is better??

[awg228]

I have a 40 gal breeder tank and i have 2 175watt 10k ushio metal halides and 4 65 watt Power compacts from my old system to use.

Which do you think would be best setup for clams and hard corals?

1- use 2 175 MH

or

2 - use 2 175 MH and 2 PC 1 for actinic and 1 for 7500k to do sunrise sunset

or

3- use 1 175 MH and 2 PC 1 for actinic and 1 for 7500k to do sunrise sunset

or 4 another suggestions from you guys

 

[diablo]

I would use 1 mh and the 2 or 4 power compacts.

with the 175watt mh and the 2 65 watt power compacts it would give you 7.625 watts per gallon which is enough for any coral/clam.

if you used the 4 power compact with the one mh you could use 50/50 bulbs on 2 for your sunrise/sunset and use the other 2 as atenics. should give you a nice balance and growth IMO.

if you used 2 65 watt 50/50, 2 65 watt atenic, 1 175 watt 10 k mh at the same time you would have 10.875 watts per gallon which is alittle over kill IMO. But if you just used the 50/50's for one hour before your mh's kicked on then changed over to the atenic's and powered off the 50/50's so only 2 65 PC's and the one 10 k mh's should give you a nice crisp blue color throughout your day into night cycle.

personally I would just use the atenics as my dawn/dusk, and then power on the MH leaving the atenics on through out the day cycle. using just 2 65 watts and 1 MH.

still heat may be a issue for you so I hope you are planning on using a chiller.