Lighting debate

[whitey_028]

I had to post this but im sooo tired of hearing "I cant have an anenome because i dont have metal halide." There are vho,t5,and pc lighting that are more than sufficiant for stony corals,clams,and anenomes. There are flaws in the metal halide systems that i have seen as I have them and rarely use them.
Here is a quote from another no named site:
If I seem to dwell on VHOs, there's a good reason. While metal halide (MH) lighting is the finest light energy source we have, and it can provide the right incredible intensity of light ideal for maintaining delicate to establish SPS corals, they create all kinds of other issues to the aquarist.
Metal halides are essentially a very powerful incandescent light bulb. Touch a 100 watter in your living room lamp and you'll see my point. Now, magnify that to 175 or 250 watts and you begin to see the impact on water temperature. Maintaining water temperature at or as near to 76-77 degrees is problematic enough. Hang that heat-radiating bulb six inches above the water surface and watch your tank temperature climb, Climb, CLIMB...
Fans, chillers and building special hoods to accommodate MHs are but a few of the residuals that using these bulbs can create. If you are not willing to shell out $500.00-$600.00 for a commercial chiller, then using fans mounted at the water surface or in the hood are your only avenues of keeping the water temp within limits. Ever hear of the domino principle? Fans cool the water by evaporation. If you are replenishing a quart or two a day due to ambient evaporation, just wait till you kick that fan on! Doubling or even tripling current evaporation rates can be realized when using cooling fans.
One thing DOES lead to another here, doesn't it? Did I mention special hoods for MH's? Yep. A 12 inch MINIMUM distance from the MH bulb to the water surface is the rule. This allows some air movement between the bulb and the water, lessening the heat impact. Still gotta use those fans, though!"
I want people to enjoy this hobby and not worry or not be educated about this lighting situation. I am not badmouthing metal halides at all as like i said i have them also...

 

[hifi]

I have 500 watts of MH's for my tank they are 6" off the water I have a glass top & 2 4" cooling fans on ether side of my hood, with the glass top the fans cant blow accross the water. I have yet to see a rise in my temp, its always been & stays at 80F all day & night. I keep the house at about 70-72F. I have a sebae & it was under pc's for about 2-3 weeks while I was building my canopy & I can say that it wasn't doing the best but once the MH light went up it has not stopped growing. I got it at 4"accross now its aver 8". I was really worried about the temp as well but I have had this set up for a long time without any issues & havent seen a incress in evap either. I have more evap from adding a sump. I didn't post this to argue just wanted to share my experence. I have the my MH set up the way clearly states in your post from the write up that its problematic. I had a pc set up & its cooling fans were twice as loud as what I have running now. I cant comment on VHO or T5's I never had them. Dont flame me its just my experence!!

 

[fishy7]

My set up:
I have a 215 and run a coralife Aqulight pro 72" 3 150hqi and 384w of pc's.
The lights sit 4" off the water and I have glass lids.
The lights are mounted in a canopy where I have 4 4" icecap fans pulling the heat out. The fans are great, make very little noise. I also use a fan to blow on the sump.
Temp stays at 80 except for the summer when it get 100+ outside and I keep the house at 80. It will bump up to 81 by the end of the light cycle. MH run 8 hours PC run 11.
I have to add about 1/2 gal per day.
From my research, when you have heat issues, to take a look at every angle. Pumps/Powerheads/Lighting/Room temp, you have to get a perfect balance. My formula: external low heat transfer pump/make the pump large enough that you do not have to use poewerheads/make sure your lights are properly vented/and keep your room temp 3 deg below your desired tank temp.
Just wanted to share my experience.

***)

 

[dogstar]

I love the shimmer lines that can only come from a single point light source....

 

[lbaskball]

Use to have a JBJ 24gal nano, I custom fitted a 150watt MH along with my 36watt PC lights I had. Had to add 1 fan to keep the tempertures at 82degrees during hot summer days in california. Had minor issues with evaporation due to having the lid open. But corals thrived in this light. Love the shimmers as well.

 

[ouchthathu]

I guess I'm an oddball. I have 2 55Gal tanks with only 4x65 PC lights on each one. I don't have glass covers on the tanks and all I have to worry about is evaporation (I replace about 5gl a week).
In one tank I raise BTA's which I feed Krill and Silversides once per week. There are about 15 in the tank now and I get a split about every other week on at lease one of them (one has split 11 times in the past year.)
The other tank I keep a variety of soft corals polyps and shrooms, all are doing fine and seem to be doubling in size every 3 months or so (I don't stay up on my calcium levels like I should).
I think that the lights have to suit the person's budget. PC's are a great entry level source that will sustain a wide variety of corals and anenomes that often get discounted.
Now I say all this because I've never had MH lights and if I have $500 to spend I'm going to spend it on another tank instead of upgrading lights. I have seen the difference between MH and PC lights (and it is significant). but I would recommend to any Novice reading this post to start with VHO's or PC's first before moving on to the MH systems...
Just my 2cents

 

[bot587]

i use mh as well... 150 watt with 2x65w actinic... havent had any priblems yet. I started with pc's about 2 years ago and i would not go back to pc's for the world... just my 2 cents

 

[tx reef]

Originally Posted by Dogstar
I love the shimmer lines that can only come from a single point light source....

 

[a. clarkii]

I guess I am the oddball. T5s all the way for me.
VHO is not all that efficient on PAR and gives off A LOT of heat. VHO bulbs also don't last as long as T5's. Halides don't penetrate any deeper than any other light. The reason they typically provide more intensity at the sandbed is they start out much more intense. A 4x54 watt Ice Cap T5 setup will put more light to the sand than most 250 watt halides. In general, the only reason halides penetrate deeper is because you can just get 400 (or 1000!)watts into a smaller area...where it takes a T5 setup a full 1.5'x4' area to do that much. Other than that though, the T5s penetrate deeper from a PAR/penetration/watt standpoint. I have have T5s and have had pc setups. If it was me I would go with the T-5s imo. The bulbs last longer and put out less heat. With good reflectors you can do pretty much anything you want with them as well.