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Hi, if you want to keep everything, go MH. I have 400-watt MH's, if you really want to keep everything I'd go 400's or at least 250's, although 175's can keep most things. 6500K have the highest PAR, ie are the brightest and have the most light useful to corals. German 10kK are the next best...

Basically you want to end up with somewhere between an 8-12 hour photoperiod, just make sure you increase the light levels slowly. When I upgraded from 175 to 400-watt MH's, I started off with them at 3 hours, and increased by half an hour every 2-3 days until I got it up to 9 hours. With...

Donna, DO NOT GET ANY LESS LIGHT!!!!! If I were you, I would definitely go with the 3rd pendant, the more lighting the better IMO. I have 400-watt MH's plus NO actinic fluorescents (I would get VHO but can't get them over here, planning on ordering them from the US) over my 180-gal, more light...

places to check out are: www.championlighting.com www.***********.com www.acropora.com www.***************.com THey have good astuff. Jason at Premium Aquatics is particularly helpful. Tom

Trust me, you might not notice the difference but your animals will. I didn't notice that much difference between 150 and 400-watt MH's but the colour difference in the corals is amazing. It's the same way that you will not notice a decrease in intensity or spectral shift in old bulbs but your...

Hi, I must respectfully disagree. I have used German and US bulbs and I can say there is a large quality difference between the two. I have used both 10000K Coralife bulbs and 5500K Venture bulbs, and they are nowhere near the quality of the German 10000K bulbs I have used (both single and...

Hi, MH bulbs need to be changed every year or so, after this time they lose spectrum and have a rapid decrease in intensity. The higher K the bulb, the shorter the lifespan. With Iwasaki 6500K bulbs, the life span is about 15 months, with the 14 or 20K it is much shorter, probably around 9...

Probably not enough LR in a 55 for a mandarin unless you have a large refugium. They need a large continuous supply of copepods. The rest should be OK though. Tom

Hi, well it depends what you want to keep really. THe best thing lighting you can get is probably 2x250 or 2x400-watt MH's with either 6500K Iwasaki with 4x110-watt VHO powered by an IceCap 660 with either 2 or 4 actinics depending on how blue you like, or a 10000K German bulb with or without...

Hi, You probably want to wait a few months before adding most corals and clams, although you can start adding the odd hardy soft or LPS coral in the meantime. I hope you have enough lighting for the clams in particular, you want at least 5 watts/gallon (this is a bad scale to use, but it's the...

You cannot use halogen lights because: 1) They give off far too much heat, more than MH. 2) THey give off the wrong spectrum of light, all they will be able to grow is algae, and you would get a horrible algae bloom in your tank. 3) THey're nowhere near bright enough, a halogen lamp will give...

NASTY STUFF!!!! OK, there are a number of ways to get rid of it. Firstly, buy a bigger skimmer. A really, really big one. Like a good brand rated at least twice the tank volume. This rips out all the organics and makes them unable to grow. I have an ozone on my tank, I don't use it most of...

Hey Clayton, that is exactly true. People always used to say to me "why the hell do you put 400-watt metal halides over your tank!" and I always reply that it's not even close to the amount of light on a reef flat! But there is a limit to the amount of light you can fit over a tank, which is...

Hey, good for you. You will be amazed at the differnce good lighting will make to your aquarim. We cannot get VHO here, but I am seriously considering importing an IceCap 660 from the US to give addition actinic blue to my 400-watt MH's. Glad I could help you out Tom

Hi, basically, the amount of light you will need depends on the critters you are trying to keep. Basically, most corals and many other organisms such as anemones, clams, so gorgonians, etc are photosynthetic, and need light to grow. In a reef tank, you are trying to simulate as close as...

Hi, a 30-gallon is definitely not big enough for 2 tangs, in fact it is not big enough for one tang. 50 gallons is the absolute minimum for tangs, and even then make sure it is a small, quiet species. Tangs are big, active fish with large territories and do not mix well with small tanks...

Fishgirl, fans actually do cool the water, a great deal in fact, often by 7-8 degrees if you have them working properly. The work by evaporative cooling, much the same way as sweating cools down a person. If your tank gets too hot, put a few fans on and you should contol it fine, maybe a 6"...

Hi, go to www.reefsdownunder.com.au "articles" and there is one there on this exact subject. Regards, Tom

If you're dealing with cone shells here, then it's probably best not to touch them at all as some speices can kill humans. THe geographer cone is the most dangerous, however there are some other dangerous speices capable of doing considerable harm. The dangerous ones are usually fairly large...

if you put human in a box to live his whole life it wouldn't grow to normal size either but that does not mean you should do it. Please only keep fish who will grow to their natural size and live a similar life to the one they would in the wild. Otherwise, the fish will simply stress and die...