Honestly.. Too much light, about 12Watts/Gal ?

[sammiefish]

Im with Mud on this one...
I dont think you can put too much artificial light on your aquarium... But I think someone could employ more than they can use therefore raising the electric bill unnecessarily...
I dont think your proposal would be wasteful.
If you want go for the most intensity ... (flourescent wise) go VHO.
To supplement my MH I have only actinic VHO. I think I might add some 10000K's so I can add some white light without the MH's being on...
what I do is have the actinics come on in the AM, then the MH's come on and the actinics go off, the MH's go off and the actinics come on, then they go off for the night. I think I would like to have some white light to put in there somewhere when the MH's are off. (better dusk to dawn to dusk to night effect)...
With a 4x65W PC setup you could do 2 actinics and 2 10000K's. Anyway you go it sure sounds SWEET!

 

[masala4080]

Thats what I was thinking. Im probably gunna do the 48" Aqualight Retrofit Kit. It has 2 True actinics (to add some blue to the tank, I have all yellowish with my 10000K MH bulbs) and two 10000K white PC's. Each bulb puts out 65w each, for a total of 260w of PC. Is this considered VHO? Im probably gunna have the 2 actinics come on, then the 2 white PCs, then my MH, then turn off MH, turn off white PCs, then turn off the actinics, leaving my Moonlights on 24/7.

 

[snipe]

Moon lights dont need to be on 24/7 it just more of a bill they only need to be on at night when all the other lights are off.

 

[sammiefish]

No, PC's are PC's, then there is VHO and then T5 and then NO.
I wouldnt worry about max intensity from your flourescent because your 2 x 400W MH will be more than adequate in that dept.
I like PC's... before i got MH I had the 48" Coralife 4x65W fixture... nice lights.. Im sure you will really like them..

 

[snipe]

PC's, VHO and T-5 are good for ppl like me who dont plan on keeping clams and SPS corals. I really like them if I had metal halides on my tank it would be to bright in my living room lol.

 

[bdhough]

Mudplayerx,
Have you seen that oxygen thing happen before? What happens? I had a brown pocillipora come to me in the mail and i placed it up pretty high under a 175 halide. It slowly lost its color and died. Took about 3 weeks for it to completely die. Would something like that take that long?

 

[mudplayerx]

Fortunately, I have never experienced the death of an invert from oxygen poisoning or light burn. My guess is the organism would gain color, not lose it, as the symbiotic algae would bloom in its tissue. This would cause your invert to change color according to the photosynthetic pigment present in its tissue.
My tank at home is only a few months old, so I do not have any corals in it, as you should wait at least half a year before adding them. Although I help take care of a 450 gallon tank at school and we definately have a lighting acclimation process. We turn the lights off for about 24 hours after putting the organism in. After that we only turn on about half of the MH's on for about four about 3-4 hours the first day. We add about an hour a day and turn all of the MH's on the last day.