lighting help please

[mr_alberta]

Hi Al,

IceCap is only a brand name (like Nike). They manufacture ballast that drive an assortment of different lights as well as other lighting related equipment.

As to your lighting question, on a 24" deep tank, you may be able to get away with 175W MH if you keep any real light loving creatures in the top 1/2 of your tank. However, since the price difference between 175W and 250W isn't too much, I would suggest you go straight for the 250W setup. I also suggest that you do go with Metal Halides as they offer you the most flexibility with respect to what type of creatures you can keep in your aquarium.

Whether or not you need Actinic supplementation is completely up to you though. I personally don't use any actinic supplementation. Instead I use a higher Kelvin (color temperature) bulb (~14000 Kelvin).