Someone school me (again) on lighting...

[AquAsylum]

We have 420 watts of VHO on our 120 gallon tank. Our only coral is a small colony of zoos, and we don't intend to try any more corals for awhile.

Now we have the metal halides that come with our new system and I'm wondering if we should use them instead of selling them. I know at least a few of you have gone from mh to T-5s or vice versa...please give me your end opinion and why.

I guess the decision could pretty easily be made on an energy basis- what will cost less to run, and what will heat the water too much? With the VHOs, the water stays at about 80....

And will someone please remind me which spectrum is better for NOT cultivating hair algae?

[Agu]

Laura,

Waterkeeper posted a great thread explaining lighting,


http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=550860

In general MH will heat your tank more, esp if it's in an enclosed hood. However the glimmer lines from MH are really aesthetically pleasing imo.

How many watts are the mh ? Is it possible to use a combination of mh/vho but not use all the lights ?


fwiw,hth,

[AquAsylum]

There are 2 175 watt ballasts, but the lights are 250 watts. I don't know how that works, but it has been running for awhile.

We're going to keep them- on the FW tank! Won't run them constantly, but just have them if we need an "AAAAAAAH" moment to show it off. Then, if we want to put them on the SW tank down the road, we can. VHO and MH wouldn't both fit on our current hood.

that did help, and i'll check out the other thread later.