Golfish!!!!

chris l

chris l

Member
Hate to bother you about another lighting question but I have talked to you more than anyone else about this. So please nobody else take affense, everyone has been a big help. But anyway, still not sure what watt halide I wanna go with 250 or 400 in my 44g. Again I wanna be able to keep anything that catches my eye. You said you would put in a 400. I am just worried about the softies I have there now being too much light. So that is why I was thinking about using a 250 along with the 175 I have now. Can you give me your oppinion along with some pro's and cons of each. Thanks a bunch!!
 
chris l

chris l

Member
Will the softies I have now be ok with that much light? And if I go with the 400w do I keep the 175 thats on there now or should I take it off? Thanks alot!!
 
jedimaster

jedimaster

Member
My tank is 24" deep. I have a pair of 175's I also have 4 NO tubes. If the MH's are the only light then I would go with 400 radiums as you'll get lots of actinic. The radiums aren't very bright but bright enough. If you have a couple of tubes for actinic then I would go with 10k 250 or a pair of 175's. If you want to make sure you can keep anything then go with the 400 with a radium bulb but make sure you get a good electronic ballast that can give it enough power.
I ownt be keeping any super high light things in my tank as I pretty much want to start with softies for the first year or so. then I may upgrade to a pair of 400's. But when I do that I may also be upping the size of my tanks and going with a 6foot long 18 or 20" deep one. I don't really like the 24" deep tank as I always get my sleeve wet when cleaning it. If I do that then I'll keep my 175s and get a pair of 250s for the center. Anyway back to you. 250 10k or 400 20k. JMHO
 
chris l

chris l

Member
jedi......the ballast I am going with will be the PFO HQI but still unsure what wattage. I don't want to damage any of the coral I have in my tank now that don't need all of that light from a 400. Being the tank is pretty small there are not a lot of place to move them out of the intense light.
 
ironreef

ironreef

Member
I keep sps on the bottom of my 24" tall tank. Montipora if you have a mixed reef 250w will be fine. You can keep sps all over but the blues and violets you will need to keep on top to retain the color. IME greens you can put anywhere. 400w you may get better colors but i've seen enough dedicated sps tanks with 250w and 400w to know that there is more than just lighting. I've seen pretty of crappy tanks with 400w lighting= sps didn't have color ect.But I've also seen a tank with 400w 6.5k = a sps frag turned from brown to pink under a 175 10k ushio. Theres lots of factors not all sps do the same under all lighting. But IME blue/ vilots need the higher lighting. pinks green imo do just as good in 250w withing 20" from the bulb JME
 
chris l

chris l

Member
I think I have decided to go witht the 400w radium. I will just watch my softies to make sure they are o.k. with it.
 
ironreef

ironreef

Member
I don't think you will have a problem with most softies. LPS IME don't like to much halide. My branching frogspawn loves it but my OP brain doesn't. The shapes of the corals= branching usually likes light. Boulder type like less light.
 
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