Halide vs PC Question
 

Right now I have a 44G 25" deep tank, with a corallife 192W PC lighting system. I would like to upgrade to halides, preferable the bell pendant kind (around 250W). If I were to buy a 20000K bulb at 250W, would I still need actinics for acroporas? I also would like to keep some clams but mainly would like to keep SPS.

Would I need to keep both lighting systems, or would just the halides suffice?

Nope you dont need actinics. i think after 14k you dont need actinics n e more

Just remember that as you go up in color temperature, you lose intensity (PAR). For example a 250W 20,000K may have the same PAR as a 175W 10,000K. Keep this in mind for species that prefer higher intensities.

Thanks for your replies guys. If I upgrade to a 10000-12000K 250W MH setup only (no fluorescents), would the appearance of the tank be very appealing. I know 20000K would be very blue looking, and 6500K looks very yellow. I just would like to get away with only having halides, but be able to keep most corals and make then visually appealing.

Any ideas?

have you checked out some of the threads that show different bulbs for comparison?

Here's Steve's recent one:
http://www.canreef.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=7896

And this 250W show put together nicely:
http://metricksystem.com/chris/250wcolour/

Thanks Alan, those are great links. That will definitely help in deciding what to buy. Too many bulb choices!

Dirty, you have PM :mrgreen:

Does anyone know of a bulb comparrison page for 250W DE bulbs?