Best Lighting
- Thread starter gorko
- Start date
mr . salty
Active Member
As many PC,orVHO fluorescent bulbs you can cram under the hood. You need 4-5 watts of light per gallon. At 4 watts that figures out to Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, Well you do the math....STEVE
reptilicus
Member
Hi,
the best lighting you can have for a tank that size is without a doubt 2x400-watt Metal Halides with 6500K Iwasaki bulbs and either 2 or 4 110-watt VHO actinic 03's. This will give you the light to be able to make anything thrive and hold it's colour beautifully and the VHO actinics will give it a beautiful eye-pleasing colour, plus with VHO you can get true actinic, which you can't get from PC's (and believe me, you will want true actinic because the fluorescent effect is awesome). The 6500K Iwasaki bulbs have the highest PAR and therefore enable your corals to thrive and hold their colours best.
Regards,
Tom
the best lighting you can have for a tank that size is without a doubt 2x400-watt Metal Halides with 6500K Iwasaki bulbs and either 2 or 4 110-watt VHO actinic 03's. This will give you the light to be able to make anything thrive and hold it's colour beautifully and the VHO actinics will give it a beautiful eye-pleasing colour, plus with VHO you can get true actinic, which you can't get from PC's (and believe me, you will want true actinic because the fluorescent effect is awesome). The 6500K Iwasaki bulbs have the highest PAR and therefore enable your corals to thrive and hold their colours best.
Regards,
Tom
mr . salty
Active Member
I agree that MH are awsome,But I worry about the HEAT over a small tank. I use them on a 125 and the heat affects the water temp in it. Two 250's over a 75gallon,heat will be a problem. That's why I sugested the PC,or VHO's. STEVE
reptilicus
Member
The heat output of a metal halide isn't really any more than a fluorescent (when compared watt for watt), however they seem hotter because you have a concentrated light and heat source, rather than the heat being spread out along the whole bulb. THis does not affect the amount of heat going into the tank at all. For example, 1 400-watt MH will not heat the water any more than 4 VHO fluorescents, and you are getting the same amount of light. Considering the amount of light you can pack into a small place, I would have no doubt going with the setup you described before, if you are at all worried about heat maybe you could step down to 250-watt halides.
To cool the tank, just get some fans, and have them blow across the water's surface, you can even put one over the sump. When you buy your IceCap ballasts you can buy some cooling fans from them as well. A couple fans will increase your evaporation (which is good if you are dosing kalkwasser for calcium, if you've got a calcium reactor then it doesn't matter), and keep your temperature at an acceptable level. But really, as far as amount and quality of light, if you want to keep "everything" you cannot go past MH.
To cool the tank, just get some fans, and have them blow across the water's surface, you can even put one over the sump. When you buy your IceCap ballasts you can buy some cooling fans from them as well. A couple fans will increase your evaporation (which is good if you are dosing kalkwasser for calcium, if you've got a calcium reactor then it doesn't matter), and keep your temperature at an acceptable level. But really, as far as amount and quality of light, if you want to keep "everything" you cannot go past MH.