150hqi

[Doug]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

I still say you should run the Iwasaki 175W/14000k lamp..

Thats still the likely direction Tony. I have, however, read more threads where several have switched from them to 250,s and a higher colour temp. to get more blue.

[Skimmerking]

Bite the bullet and buy a 250, Doug quit being so Cheap.....

[scumchug]

I started out with 150's. Although they were enough to keep things alive, coral growth and vigour was limited to say the least.

I then decided to go for the gusto and get 400's. After buying a dual 400 PFO fixture, I thought about it some more, and decided the 400's were overkill, and bought 2 - 250 Hamiltons. Brought them home, plugged them in, took a look at the tank. Unplugged them and put them in a box.

The 400's are there to stay until something better comes along.

[Skimmerking]

Originally Posted by scumchug

I started out with 150's. Although they were enough to keep things alive, coral growth and vigour was limited to say the least.

I then decided to go for the gusto and get 400's. After buying a dual 400 PFO fixture, I thought about it some more, and decided the 400's were overkill, and bought 2 - 250 Hamiltons. Brought them home, plugged them in, took a look at the tank. Unplugged them and put them in a box.

The 400's are there to stay until something better comes along.

so your saying that you want a nice fixture of T-5's i have a 8 bulb fixture and its alot of lighting to. I have alot of growth , the key is the bulbs that you put in the fixutre and having the indivdual reflectors makes a huge difference too.

[scumchug]

I'm glad they work for you!

I had a HO-T5 fixture individual reflectors. It paled in comparison to the 400 MH's. Paled is not the right word. It was much worse than that.

Its not only the growth i'm happy with. Its the overall picture. The 400MH's give everything i'm looking for. I wanted my cake, and to eat it too. Color was very important to me. Yet I wanted something that would promote good growth at all depths of the tank. A task I found nearly impossible.

I can run 20,000 K bulbs, and still have more than enough light reaching the bottom .

I used to run over 12 watts per gallon. Now even with the 1000 watts of light, i'm down to 8.4 watts per gallon, but with better color and growth.

I still have a 150. I found its really good for growing Cheato in the fuge.

Originally Posted by asmodeus

so your saying that you want a nice fixture of T-5's i have a 8 bulb fixture and its alot of lighting to. I have alot of growth , the key is the bulbs that you put in the fixutre and having the indivdual reflectors makes a huge difference too.

[bv_reefer]

my hqi's give wicked color to all my hard corals but growth is kinda lousy honestly, I'm going 400's

[Myka]

24x24x18" high...with sps corals. I'd go 250w. Well, actually I'd go 400w mogul, but that's just me. LOL!

[Doug]

Actually its 24H. I,m in agreement with what others say. Except for 400,s. I doubt I will go back to them.

However if you read the portion where I was talking with myself, , I mentioned 250 par issues. Most stink, unless using 10K. And the 10K barely out performs the Iwasaki in the 175w version and gives the same colour.

I suppose some of the DE bulbs would perhaps do better but my preference is SE. Crap, when I look at the charts now, the 250 I use to run, is only half the par or the same bulb but in 10K and a bit more than half of the Iwasaki bulb.

I was looking up 250w Radiums but they would require overdriving to have enough output. I,m on the hunt for one of Steves old posts on them.