Halide, UV questions

[beachbomb]

Hi all,
I have a 65 gallon tank with live rock, it has been established for over three years now. I am getting ready to upgrade the lighting to halide and have some questions. 1. What is the recommended wattage per gallon of water for halide? 2. How long during a 24hr day should the halides be turned on. 3. Is a UV filter necessary on the halide, and if so why? 4. Stupid question here but....what does HQI stand for? 5. And lastly..any recommendations of what brand or where to buy this lighting from. Thanks in advance. Jim

 

[wangotango]

1. There is no "watts/gallon" rule for any lighting technology. Generally you will want to use a 250w lamp on tanks 24" tall or less, and 400w bulbs on tanks 30" deep or more. A single lamp with a decent reflector can cover about a 2'x2' area. Better reflectors can cover a 3'x3' area.
 
2. Depends. Some people run 8 hours, some run 12. Find what works for your own viewing schedule and what your corals seem to adjust to.
 
3. Single-ended lamps (mogul) have a UV glass shield, double-ended (HQI) do not, so a reflector that you would use with them should include a special UV shield.
 
4. HQI= Hydrargyrum quartz iodide
 
5. Ushio, Radium, XM, and Phoenix are all popular lamp brands.

 

[posiden]

How big a tank?
How deep of a tank?
What's your current lighting?
What type of coral?
 
I'm running a 175W Reef Lux SE (Mogul) 20K on my tank. I have 2 24" VHOs to supplement the blue. I myself LOVE the look. I'm not sure why I never tried halide before recently. I don't think I can go back or switch to anything else......maybe LED. Maybe?

 

[geoj]

I run two Current USA blue PowerBrite LEDs for 10 hour as my actinic light and one 250w MH at 15k for 5 or 6 hours to give me the white light. All on a 25 gal tank...