pc or halide lighting?

[cooldec2686]

I was wondering if i could get away with ussing one of the orbit series light fixtures over my 12 nano and keep some colorful acros cuz the light spectrum of the bulbs is slightly different than usual. Has any one had success with this or should I just get something tht i know would work like Vho or MH? Thanks for you help.

[Undertheradar]

No matter what PC bulbs you use, halides will alwaysprovide a more complete and intense light that will make your SPS happier. Halide tends to put out twice as much lumens per watt as power compact...and it has a more natural spectrum.

[cooldec2686]

I understand that I would get better growth rates from metal halides it is just that i don't know if I can get the same coloration without the same lumens as a halide.

[jaguilar]

i just recently switched from 64watts of pc over a 12g to 175watts of mh over a 20g. i truly believe that halides are the best option for both growth and coloration, but a lot can be done with just pc lighting. i see that you want to keep some colorful acros, so i would highly suggest going with mh. check out my tank thread, you'll see that i was able to successfully grow many different corals under a 2x32w pc retro. even though my tank was mostly softies(zoos & rics), i do have some lps and two small sps frags that did alright under the lighting. they weren't thriving, but were surviving with even a little bit of growth. but my zoos grew like weeds in the summer. every variation of zoos that i have started out as a frag of no more that 5 polyps.. everything has spread like crazy under the pc lights. just check it out for yourself, and the last four or five pics in that thread are of my new tank(20h) under 175w 14k bulb with 2x20w n/o actinincs. the water was still slightly murky because those pics were taken right after the move, but you get a good idea of what the color is gonna be like.

 

here it is: http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/showthread...&threadid=37352

[cooldec2686]

i read your thread about the 20k halides and was wondering if it turned out to be bright enough to look alright?

[jaguilar]

i'm not sure what thread you're talking about, but after some extensive research, i decided to go with the hamilton 14k. i saw a few tanks locally that were using the 20k, and it looked very nice, just a little too blue for my liking. i also have a hamilton 10k, and it has a nice crisp ice-white look to it, but it doesn't pull out the colors of my corals like a higher color temp does. so i decided to go with the 14k, because it seemed like the perfect compromise between too white and too blue. and it brings out the colors very nicely. i'm very happy with my choice.