reef lighting help

[rickyh24]

ok guys looking for some advice. right now i have one double 36 in strip light. with a 10k and a 50/50 bulb in it. Im looking to get a metal halide to go along with this. what kind of wattage should i look for?? also anyone know any good web sites to buyt them off. I was thinking of going with a metal halide then putting an atinic and another bulb in the double. not sure what the other is gonna be yet. any help with prices and wattage would be appreciated. im totally new to the MH thing so i am clueless. will i be all set to get any kind of coral with this???? ohh yeah i have a 50 gallon tank. with some mushrooms and a few fish in it now heres a quick pic

 

[rickyh24]

heres the pic i need some corals.

 

[stuckinfla]

Need size of tank, dimentions, and type of corals you want to keep. I did the same thing, gutted my strip lights, put in two actinics built a hood and added 2x175 MH. I have a 55, 24" deep.

 

[rickyh24]

mines a 50 gallon 15 inches deep. I want to keep my strip ligth for atinics or something i should be able to do both i hope. What wattage do i need? i want to be able to have some acropora if i find a piece i like and other varoius corals.

 

[rickyh24]

i have a glass top can i just put them above that???

 

[mobikobeyob]

Yeah, but you will have a lot of heat and they wont shine as bright. You will probably need 250's for most SPS types. If you want a good site for lighting (prices and selection), email me: mikepare@cflDOTrrDOTcom
Take out the "DOT's" and put "."
I am very happy with what I did on my set up. Here it is.
Mobi

 

[rickyh24]

i had lights over open water before and they ended up rotting out because of evaporation thats why i switched to the one strip. i used two have two double strips with some coral. but i would like to get the good stuff now. so you wouldnt reccomend putting them on top of glass?

 

[rickyh24]

so what kind of bulbs do i use with MH lighting are they blue bulbs? or just really powerful flouresents? is it worth using my double strip with them?

 

[stuckinfla]

IMO 250 seems a bit much for a 15" depth. If your going to have the actinic supp. try the 10K. The lower the K rating the more yellow, the higher, more blue. The brand of bulb depends on the type of ballast. (pulse or probe). Either one, depends on how much you want to spend. When I ordered, they came with instructions, so it was easy to wire. If I knew how the wiring was done, I would have bought the supplies at the local electrical supplier and done it myself

 

[rickyh24]

so how much wattage you think??? you cant buy them all ready to go. im not for good with wiring stuff. is it hard??

 

[tkblazer]

first off, will you be upgrade the tank in the future? second, do you HAVE to keep the strip light? you can get away with just the halide by running a high kelvin bulb.
for your current tank height a 150w double ended setup would be perfect if you wanted to fork out the cash for a DE pendant and hqi ballast. otherwise a 175w single setup would be perfectly fine. i may be biased, but i like the hamilton 14k bulbs since they are fairly affordable at around 50-60/ bulb and give off a nice pure white color with a slight hint of blue on a mag hqi ballast. on a electronic ballast they fire a little more blue.
also you never stated if you have a canopy or not. with halides, you will need to ditch that glass cover or will eventually crack and you don't want that.
let me know if you have any other lighting questions
nam

 

[hariii2]

Hey, I was reading this post and came up with a question of my own. I have a glass top and I am ordering VHO setup, so do I need to get rid of the glass? Or only if I get MH? (which I plan on doing after I pay off the VHO)

 

[rickyh24]

i dont have a canopy. the glass top i got because of my girlfriends cats i just have a double strip sitting over the glass top. my mushrooms and anemone are doing awesome . i was thinking about maybe going vho because of the price. I would like to spend around 150. i may eventually build a canopy. you think since my tanks is only 15 inches deep that vho's might be good enough? along with the double strip??

 

[tkblazer]

VHO's would be a very nice setup on your tank, i was running 4 110w VHO's for a few months and i had very good growth and colors. is that strip light normal output or are they pc's? you could just use them for a slight dusk/dawn effect and use the vho's for primary lighting source.

 

[rickyh24]

yeah i was thinking of just keeping the strip light and putting blue lights in it. what should i get for vho wattage? iwas looking at a PFO 2 Bulb VHO Retro it says it can handle 24-48 bulbs. what should i get for bulbs?? and will i be able to have hard corals? im not sure what my current strip is. i think its normal. it cost 100.00 for a double strip. at that pet place. how can i tell?

 

[rickyh24]

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