lighting ?

[slappy]

i currently have 356 watts of pc light on my 54 corner tank. 96 watts of 50/50 , 65 watts of actinic, and 195 watts of 10000 k. everything seems to be doing fine so im happy for the most part but i was thinking of useing one of those 150 watt pendent medal halide lights, and maybe use 130 watts of actinic. my ? is would 150 medal halide be better then 356 of pc. if so what combo should i use with the medal halide. how much actinic, should i still even use any other pc lighting like the 50/50 or the 10000 k

 

[wax32]

I dunno about better, but it would be different. It all depends on what you want to do as far as corals go and what you think looks better.
I got rid of my halide in favor of more VHO bulbs and I am pleased with my results. I keep mostly zoanthids and shrooms with a couple of Montipora, an Acropora and a Sarcophyton thrown in for good measure. I think my tank looks better now and my corals are showing better growth.

 

[slappy]

well one reason i was thinking of doing this is to clean up the hood over my tank. right now its just packed full of wires, lights and the remains of the corallight pc fixtures to make everything work. also as for watt per gallon right now im running 6.5 wpg with pc and if i went to 150 mh plus 130 being pc actinic it would drop to 5.1 wpg. i know ive read here that mh is completly different when it comes to wpg, all that just leaves me stumped. i know i do like the way mh looks, it just seems brighter and the shimmer effect is cool looking too. as for corals i only want to keep and currently have just so zoos and shrooms and a few other low light easy to keep things. i wouldnt mind getting maybe a frogspawn and a hammer. i dont plan on getting any clams or hard to keep sps, just a little to much work to keep happy for me. just wondering what other benifits having mh over pc are. it would be nice to be able to buy any coral when i go to the lfs and know at least my lighting needs are met. any input is appreciated thanks