Metal Halide..Why not Mercury Vapor?

180dude

180dude

Member
This weekend I recently installed 2 175 watt mercury vapor lamps on my 180 show tank. Along with the Mercurys I have to (2) 110 watt compact fluorscent (white and blues). Since I have mainly fish and a few polyps the tanks it much brighter. I would like to know if any objects to this idea? All comments are great.
If anyone is interested in the design, I would be happy to explain how I did it. The total project cost around $60 and the water temperature has remained the same at 77.2 deg. The total project took about 1.5hrs.
I believe the mercury vapor bulbs are at 6500k.
 
bailey52

bailey52

Member
hey dude, sounds great and im kind of interested. Dont know much about the mercury bulbs.. but i believe the problem is with the 6500k bulbs.. not very strong.. anyway my email is bailey52@temple.edu if you dont mind.. could you let me know what/where you bought stuff?
 
thegrog

thegrog

Active Member
with 6500K bulbs, you won't be able to keep very light demanding corals. You need it least 10,000K bulbs for that. But if all you are keeping is fish and a few polyps, than you should be alright.
 
robchuck

robchuck

Active Member
The Iwaksaki 6,500K bulb is the only mercury vapor bulb I would use. They give out huge amounts of PAR and corals grow very quickly under them. In fact, I have had a 400W bulb Iwasaki bulb running over a holding tank for the past week and a half, and the corals have responded tremendously over that period.
 
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