Halides are bad for reef tanks?

[farnorth]

Almost every coral I get it sounds like I can't get them too high up in the tank or they will die from too much light or get bleached from my halides, even if I acclimate them.

I have 2 150 watt halides.
So... there was a ton of hype around them and it sounded like a really beneficial light to have for corals, but now after what I keep reading...???? :notsure:
Any opinions about this and experience with different corals with halides?

 

[ophiura]

Well, certainly you don't want to switch from lower intensity lights to halides without an acclimation period.
Certain types of corals may not care to be right under metal halides. They are great lights for many of the SPS corals, but some others may not need, or care for, lights of that intensity.
What types of corals are you interested in? How deep is your tank?

 

[fedukeford]

What kind of corals do you have? Mainly SPS like the halides, but if you get 15k or 20k halides you should be ok to put most softies/LPS anywhere you want.
Feduke

 

[bang guy]

How long have you been acclimating them?

 

[farnorth]

Actually all of my corals look great, but I have all of them mid to bottom of the tank, because almost everything I have been reading on here are zoos are the only corals that can be under halides towards the top and some people say those can't handle them either.
I have....
Frogspawn
bubble coral
brain
gorgonian
kenya tree
candy cane
sinularia
cabbage
many colors of shrooms
many colors of zoos

 

[1journeyman]

My BTA and Cr. Clam are both inches from the surface, directly under 2 250Wt HQIs and 6 VHO's.
Halides are essential, imho, for high light requiring corals.

 

[fender]

I have 400w of halides cooking my 65g tank without problems.

Corals seems to like it alot. ***)

 

[dejaco]

Hey same here - two 250 watt MH and two 160 watss VHO and everything is great. I keep zoo's, shrooms, and clams low, softies and LPS midway and am finally gett SPS up top on rocks!

 

[acrylic51]

Same here....My frogspawn loves the MH's under the Lumenarc reflectors and you can't get much better than those, and my zoos love the MH's as well......

 

[fallnhorse]

I killed my first mushrooms with 250 halides. Too intense. i went back to PCs. Safer for one. Put out less heat. Plus i like medium light corals. Like kenya, shrooms and python zoos.

 

[indydirk]

Originally Posted by farnorth
Almost every coral I get it sounds like I can't get them too high up in the tank or they will die from too much light or get bleached from my halides, even if I acclimate them.

I have 2 150 watt halides.
So... there was a ton of hype around them and it sounded like a really beneficial light to have for corals, but now after what I keep reading...???? :notsure:
Any opinions about this and experience with different corals with halides?

Just send the lights my way, I won't even charge ya to take em off your hands. Maybe even trade ya my table lamp for em.

 

[farnorth]

Thanks for the offer indy... think I will still keep them though

Don't get me wrong, I am glad I have them, it has been frustrating to just hear over and over that I need to put most of my corals in the middle or bottom.
All of these posts help, I actually put my kenya up yesterday midway to the top and it looks like it is loving it and my colt as well

Guess I will just keep going through trial and error, which is what makes this hobby so much fun. :happyfish

 

[bang guy]

All of the corals you mentioned will thrive under your intense lighting. You just have to acclimate them slowly (months).

 

[farnorth]

Bang guy thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is what I was hoping and seemed to make sense, but I just kept seeing contradictions. The kenya and the colt that I have been slowly moving up are 2/3 to the top now and look REALLY happy and seem to already be growing considereably. :cheer:
I will just slowly acclimate others in the future then.