MH Lighting

[wilson]

K heres the story.

I am starting a 15g salt water, and i was going to get 2*65 watt light for it. But next thursday im going to a pet store that is going out of business, and if they have MH lighting for the same price as wat i was going to pay before for the PC i might get that. What should i look for, if its 175w is that too much. I need all the help i can with this thanks. also will it cause a lot more evap. and electricity cuz i still live at hoem and dont want my rents' hydro bill going up much more.

[Reefer_Buddha]

175w would be a good size for a 15g. You can use a 20k bulb and not worry about actinics or just use a 10k and 2x36w actinics. Up to you really. As far as electricity its not a huge difference but i dont really know how much they charge you per kilowatt/hour. Im sure you can check on your local power company's website they give you break downs of how much power appliances and lights will run you. I didnt see a huge spike in mine when i went to halide and i run 200w.

[wilson]

if i cant get a 20k bulb, do i need to get actinics or will it be fine.

[TurtleWax]

No, you don't need actinics.

[Undertheradar]

Heres somethin' to consider. This is my usual plug for halides...

 

For a 15g, either one 175wattSE (single ended) or one 150wattDE (double ended...actually outperforms the 175wattSE) rated at 15-20,000K would work perfect...and over the long run end up cheaper.

 

First, even thought the initial setup might cost more, you will only have to replace one bulb down the road...and they are getting cheaper every day (more reefers buy them, more the price drops). That one bulb lasts 50-100% longer than a PC bulb....so less replacement cost over time. And, many experts say that halides need only to be on for 6 hours a day to do all their good (I tend to run mine 8 hours a day just in case) vs. the 10-14 hour photoperiod required by many PC bulb setups to do their job. So your electricity is less as well. And did I mention that since switching all my tanks over to halide, my growth has taken off...in many cases by double what it was with PC? The amount of 'full spectrum' light that a halide makes just destroys the blotchy output of any flo type light. The last tank I set up didnt even suffer the usual break in period troubles as the macro and corals uptook so much nutrient matter that the bad algae never had a chance to bloom, nitrates and phosphates never registered.

[wilson]

well maybe i will just have to start out with mh no matter what lol. i will have to look into it more though. hopefully i can get a good deal on sum next thursday