Lighting advice

I have the mind set that you can never have too much light.  Metal Halides are wonderful, but only if you want to keep certain corals.  I think with VHO (and I would run at least 6 bulbs) you will be fine.  And I'm not sure I would put your corals under ledges and caves.  They may not NEED more light, but they may do fine or even better with it. 

I don't know, I'm interested to see what opinions others have on this.

Adam

WOW! These are expensive! How do you guys afford these? Are chemists as rich as pharmacists? Is this what you are thinking I would need need ?http://www.lampsnow.com/48reflectors.html
Can I just do the MH ? Or do I need the VHO for actinic?
Crap! I'm going to have to start working more.......Winter is coming, there will be lots o' sick people........

Hi, Mark (and other wonderful WMAS people!)! You had a gorgeous tank with NO lights! What do you have on your nano tank? Do you still have a clam? Do you think I would need 6 VHO bulbs on a 70 gallon tank if I just want a few stonies on the top of the tank, or could I make do with 4? I figure the light will be tons more than what we have now, but I don't have any acroporas, and Kirk has some really cool PINK ones!

Adam says you can't have too much light but Jim Perry eventually decided that he had too much light so he eliminated two of his six 400 W MH. His tank is pictured/linked in the gallery. (click on the blue button "Gallery" to the left of this screen)

Yes, my 75 had 6 NO Flourescents and could have grown SPS if I hadn't had so much well established soft coral. It is also pictured in the "Gallery"
The description of the July Tank of the Month should say that it has a 36 W PC Pink/Blue color lamp. The clam passed away because of a combination of problems. It was sick when I got it, my three week low light treatment to rid flatworms and a concurent week or more where I neglected phytoplankton feeding, did it in.

Four VHO will grow SPS. You might call GARF and ask how many and what combination of tubes they use.

Did you know that CaribSea liked our website so much that they copied our home page setup! See www.carib-sea.com

Edited by Mark Peterson

Suzy,

I've been running a MH/VHO combination for several years now and I wouldn't change anything. If you are putting a new tank together - go with MH&VHO. You will love the way your tank looks and you won't be limited in the animals you can keep.

The heat is negligible. You can overcome any heat issues by using fans - either over the tank and/or over the ballast.

I'm sure you can keep SPS with VHO only, but you will be limited in the placement.

Does GARF place all their SPS near the top of the tanks? I know several people that ran VHO only and had extremely slow SPS growth - except in the top few inches of their tanks.

Whenever people ask me what lighting they should get - I always recommend buying the most light you can afford. Most people will want to upgrade later anyway. That way you won't have a bunch of NO bulbs/ballasts laying around!

Thanks, Guys! I still don't see how you guys can afford these lights! I found a combo set on the internet, but it's $400 bucks! Did you get them new, or is there a way I can DIY?

Lake Powell is almost perfect for boating right now. Leaving Thursday ...

Suzy - you can obviously DIY (remodel)so go for it. You can buy everything you need. I would be happy to help you with the wiring or whatever. It's not too hard. I think there are a couple of certified electricians lurking aroung here too... (scroll, Ryan Willden)

I acutally bought a used set-up that wasn't too expensive. Look around, there may be some used stuff you could pick up. I have a used VHO ballast that will fire two 140 w tubes. Let me know if you're interested. I've also seen some used MH ballasts posted for sale here.
There are definately benefits to DIY - money being the largest, but it also gains you some level of flexibility in your light placement and overall asthetics.