New Lights

[orto55]

Was hoping to get a little feed back from you guys on some lights I just bought.
I just recently set my tank back up and the lights were burnt out. At the time, I really dont have the money to be buying high dollar lights for my tank so I thought I would try a different route.
I went to Home depot and bout 2, 300 watt lights and hooked them up on my 125 along with the 2 blue attinics I have. I have to admit, this is the best in the lighting dept my tank has ever looked. Thing is, I dont know if the light are the correct type of light that i need. Right now I dont have any corals or anything like that so it shouldnt be a problem.
My question to you guys, would these lights be good enough for corals? Also if not, what makes power compacs and metal halides so much better. Ive read up on them but im not sure what makes them better than what I have.
Thanks for you advice
Chuck

 

[shanev]

What type of lights did you buy? What do they look like? The main difference between aquarium lights and normal lights is the spectrum which it produces. You really need from 6500K (bare minimum) to 20,000K for corals to be able to thrive. The lower end of the spectrum is great for growing algae. If you do not know what spectrum the bulbs are I would not use them, as it will likely cause algae bloom that could be hard to get rid of.