Question about changing MH ballast

[Casey8]

You are lucky with your corals, I have 2x400W with 2 actinic but all my yellow sps corals are still turning green color, I just can not keep them yellow. I have googled and found out that it is because I don't give enough light for them I really don't understand.

[daniella3d]

Something is not quite right in your math.

If your 400watt MH light cost your 48$ and your 6 x T5HO cost you only 5$, then each one of your T5HO must be about 6 watt...I don't know of any T5HO that is 6 watt... My T5HO in my 24" fixture are 24 watt each, so it's 96 watt for the whole thing and that is very very far from equivalent to even my 250 watt MH.

6 x T5HO that would be about 50 watts in total would definitly NOT be anywhere near equivalent to a 400watt MH bulb.

400 watt = 48$, thus 5$ = 41.5 watt. How can that be with 6 x T5HO?

I may not be good at math, but something is not right.

Originally Posted by isaac1

i have a 400 watt custom built mh with 7 built in blue atinic mini lamps there is nothing wrong with it all and it has grown amazing corals thow because it has a ballast it cost roughly 48 dollers on my electrical were as my 6 bulb t5ho cost 5 dollers and produces a much more efficent light spectrim with out the risks of fire or over heating to each there own

[daniella3d]

Most important thing for the yellow is lack of nitrates and phosphates:

I have no problem keeing yellow under my 250 watt 14k MH.

http://reefbuilders.com/2008/09/03/g...-vivid-bright/

Originally Posted by Casey8

You are lucky with your corals, I have 2x400W with 2 actinic but all my yellow sps corals are still turning green color, I just can not keep them yellow. I have googled and found out that it is because I don't give enough light for them I really don't understand.

[Casey8]

Do you mean my tank has too much nitrates and phosphates ? ... I have never tested for them. I didn't know the yellow is the hardest to keep their color.

[isaac1]

Each t5ho bulb is 54 watts what is 54 times 6 is 324 watts

[Casey8]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

Most important thing for the yellow is lack of nitrates and phosphates:

I have no problem keeing yellow under my 250 watt 14k MH.

http://reefbuilders.com/2008/09/03/g...-vivid-bright/

Thanks a lot for the link. I am learning a lot from reading it tonight.

[isaac1]

O lol ya i see ur point

[lastlight]

Originally Posted by Maverick00

I found the comment unfair as well, alittle biased anyway :P

LOL... I was just kidding. It's fun to poke a bit of fun at the people with more money than me =) I've had T5s though and really liked the colour output. LEDs... too soon for me just yet.

[apexifd]

Originally Posted by Casey8

Do you mean my tank has too much nitrates and phosphates ? ... I have never tested for them. I didn't know the yellow is the hardest to keep their color.

yellow should be the easiest to keep, as long as you can keep the nutrient low.

few things that you can do are:

over skimming
less feeding
more frequent water change
macro algae
mangrove
less fish
bio-pellets
zeo-vit
etc etc etc

or plumb your tank straight to the ocean.

I personally didn't change water for 4 months, and everything keeps their color well.

[gregzz4]

Originally Posted by lastlight

LOL... I was just kidding. It's fun to poke a bit of fun at the people with more money than me =) I've had T5s though and really liked the colour output. LEDs... too soon for me just yet.

I was only poking fun at you
Don't let someone else's comments take the humour out of it
I enjoyed the thought of some elitist MH owner saying their setup is better than an LED setup