Another lighting ques.

[Chrisrush]

Okay, let's say that I have a 75g tank that I want to keep some SPS and fish in it. What type of lighting would you recommend and why? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Chris

[Physh1]

I would go halide for sure. If it were me I would go either 250 mogul or 250 HQI. Sumpplement with VHO actinic too. I think under 250 you will get better growth and color. I'd go 10k - 13k if it were me. I like the cool white w/ actinic looks. Corals like it and it looks super clean to me.

[Chrisrush]

Thanks, the 250 mogul or 250 HQI are just different brands/types of MH? How many VHO actinics? 2-4?

Chris

[lark]

I'll tell you what I have on a similar sized tank -- I'm very happy with it.

I am all icecap on my 80 gallon. I have two icecap MH-175 ballasts running hamilton 10k bulbs and one icecap 660 running two 110 watt vho bulbs. (My vhos are both actinics. Many will probably find this too blue, but you can play around with combinations.)

I'm very happy with the set up and expect to be able to keep just about anything, as long as the animals are placed correctly in the tank. (FYI, the 175s look to my eye to be as bright as 250 watt iwasakis on a PFO.)

[piercho]

PFO has a list of HID lamps commonly used in reef tanks here:
http://www.pfolighting.com/aqwebsite/aqmhlamps.htm

Mogul is a style of HID lamp. It has a srew-in base similar to a regular lightbulb, but larger. Mogul bulbs have integrated UV shields and do not have to be used inside enclosures. Most HID lamps over 150W sold for the aquarium trade are mogul style bulbs.

"HQI" is a term broadly applied to lamps that run better on, or require, a ballast with an ignitor. Ushio/Hamilton makes 10,000K (10KK) bulbs in both double-ended (no shield) and mogul packages. The double ended bulbs MUST be used in an enclosure like the PFO HQI min-pendant. The double ended bulbs MUST be run on a HQI ballast. The mogul 10KK Ushio bulbs run better on HQI ballasts, but may run on "standard" ballasts as well - check with the distributor.

Double-ended bulbs are common in Europe but just starting to show up over here. They can last longer than mogul bulbs. The 10KK double-ended Ushio is the only bulb demonstrated to have higher PAR/watt (more light energy for coral growth) than the well-known 6700K Iwasaki mogul bulb. The Ushio bulb also has a more pleasing color (crisp white) than the Iwasaki bulb.

Premium Aquatics has a basic description of lighting options for reef aquaria on their website, here:
http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=PA&Category_Code=Lighting