MH bulb and ballast

[royy]

I am going to add MH lighting to my system. I currently run 440w of VHO. I will probably drop to 220w and use 2 250 watts of MH. My question is what should I get? The effect I want is decent growth of the corals, but striking colors. I guess I am leaning more towards the striking colors than fast growth, but I still want a decent rate of growth. So with that in mind, what do you think I should purchase? I have about $450-$500 to spend. I need bulbs and ballasts for this project. Any one out there that can give me their experience in this area would be thanked.

Thanks,
Roy

 

[srbayless]

Howdy,

You don't happen to mention what size tank you have, and that is improtant to determine which MH to use. In my opinion the depth of the tank is the most important factor in choosing which wattage of MH to use. The old rule of thumb that I have always used is:

175w MH for tanks between 18" - 24'
250w MH for tanks between 24' - 36"
400w for tanks deeper than 36"

The reason for this is because too high a wattage MH in too shallow a tank can cause coral burning and bleaching as well as heat issues.

Now, as for color of bulb, I would recommend the German 10,000K bulbs. They off a very white light, almost blue and are still bright. Combine the 10,000Ks with the VHO actinics or 50/50s and the tank will have a very nice overall color, not too yellow and not too blue.

Anyway, go with the PFO brand of ballasts. They are the old core/coil type of ballast, but they are very reliable and can run almost any bulb out there on the market. I purchased mine from Marine Depot because they are local to me, so I was able to skip shipping by picking them up. They also have great service and prices.

Good luck,

Scott.

 

[4angel]

I currently have a few SPS in a fourty brd. that has a 175Wmh. and 55W PC. I will be starting up a 90. I was planning to go with dual 175W mh. and NO actinics. Would this lighting be appropriate for sps?
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[liquid]

If you're going for color, you'll want a higher temperature bulb (the 10,000 K German is a good place to start). I'd also recommend going with a double ended (DE) HQI halide over the standard single end (SE) halide as I've seen people with very good resullts with these. I'd also go with srbayless' recommendations on wattage vs. tank depth.

Good luck!

Shane

 

[ADS]

There is alot of debate on this subject-deeper tanks >24" should be 250-400W range for sps however some keep beautiful sps higher in water column w/ less light.
It's all preference. I have used 6.5K iwasaki, 20K & 10K. My preference is 400W radium 20K on HQI for sps. Color is blue-white, very natural and doesn't need actinic supplementation IMO. Growth has been great!
I also prefer pendants. Less heat, look cool and make it easy to access top of tank.
Many use 250W DE 10K in pendants for sps. The color is nice and they are VERY bright. PAR is comparable to higher wattage bulbs for sps.
Nice because less heat and energy $$$. Setup is a little more costly requiring pendant/fixture, bulb and HQI ballast to run.
For a 90g, 2- 400W bulbs or 2-250W DE would be fine-choose the color you like. There have been excellent side to side comparisons of bulbs in past if you do a search. Hope this helps. Adam

 

[fishinsouthga]

in my breeder setup i have a ushio 10k and a german 10k , the ushio is blue and the german is quite yellow for a 10k , both 250w, cuz i don't like the shadows.. so i have them in opposite corners with 2 vho bulbs down the middle for dawn and dusk, this seems to promote alot of growth and doesn't seem to stretch out my inverts...

hope this helps, point is a lot of people say 10k this and 7500k that, but i found out the manufacturer seems to have alot of play room with what a 10k bulbs color actually is... and as well for others...