Lighting Watts/gal

[rangermonroe]

What is the deal? I know that 5-10 watts/gal is the ticket for inverts /coral. But Pc, Vho,Mh..Is the wattage applicable to output? I know that a watt is a watt is a watt, but before I spend 3 bills on 96 watts...
Thanks
Owen

 

[sdmarriott]

Three bills may not be enough for MH, especially for the 115 gallon tank in your profile.

 

[rangermonroe]

How much lighting is recommended for my thank with a few corals and anemonae?
Metal halides are the ticket then?

 

[q]

Depends on the corals.
What do you wish to stock the tank with?
BTW forget the anenome they have a poor survival rate in captivity and can wander around the tank and kill other corals or them selves.

 

[rangermonroe]

I have a yellow poylp coral, a green bubble, and a Hatian Condi. I have no particular design in mind for future corals, but I wish to have the option available...not to mention allowing what I have to thrive.

 

[q]

Then IMO go with 250W MH or HQI and actinic support. I have found that 175W MH bulbs are a bit lacking for the higher light corals.

 

[rangermonroe]

250 watts MH is your suggestion ,Q, Would that be a single bulb?

 

[falcon63]

yep

 

[rangermonroe]

Not to drag this out too long, but how does that appear? My tank is 72", will that make it look blue at the edges(actinics), or does the MH have the intensity to penetrate the water really well?

 

[mr hanky]

ranger monroe,
definatly go with mh! they look better and are much less space consuming!! have i got a deal for you!!!! 3 250w mh pendants/3 mh 250w ballast on independant switches, 6500k bulbs 3 installed and 3 extras all the same rating. $650 takes all. and i'm not very far from you. columbia,mo give me a holler if your interested or have questions for me or about lights!!! clayshutr@hotmail.com
or on swf.com thanks, mr hanky (robby)
75/150/180gal all salt/reef

 

[rangermonroe]

I just came from Lowes, and noticed that they have a bunch of MH bulbs. Are these in the spectrum of light that we need, or are Am I comparing a Shoplight to an actinic?
Sorry if this is a dumb question.

 

[krusk]

those MH bulbs at Lowes is too low in Kevin degree for Salt water aquarium used.
you need minimum of 5500 K
those bulbs at Lowes max Kevin are 4200 K
you can skim on other things but not on the bulbs

 

[rangermonroe]

Yeah, I did a search online and found that out for myself. I was unaware of the functioning of MH bulbs...pretty intricate.
But I appreciate all of the feedback that I have gotten from all here.
Thanks