Are MH's really the way to go

[Bravoman]

Cam,

Its my experience that bnhreef knows what he's talking about.

I'd do what he says and stick to the Metal Halides if you want to have as beautiful and sucessfull a reef as bnhreef has.

Good luck. (Although..... with bnhreef showing you the way, you won't need it!)

Bravo

[Buccaneer]

I have 400W MH on my tank and I do like the shimmer effect of MH bulbs ... however to say MH are a necessity is inaccurate

check out this SPS/LPS tank run on T5's

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...5&pagenumber=1

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Buk_A_neer

I have 400W MH on my tank and I do like the shimmer effect of MH bulbs ... however to say MH are a necessity is inaccurate

check out this SPS/LPS tank run on T5's

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...5&pagenumber=1

I don't think it has much to do with his lighting but rather all the other junk he doses daily, weekly, monthly... I never did find the part where he said how old the tank is.. might have just missed it. I think with more light he could dose less as he was saying that he can adjust the color from brown (from dosing to much ) to vivid from dosing the right amount.. also reading the picture files a little photo shop doesn't hurt either, in fact there is so much hue shift and saturation in one he has a green and lime sailfin tang, and a teal powder blue tang.

Steve

[Buccaneer]

What he doses the tank with has little to do with what corals need in terms of light intensity IMO ... Like I said I have MH but they are not a necessity

He has reduced excess nutrients to allow the colours to be more vivid but just uses T5's for light

Therefore MH are NOT required for SPS

[Ruth]

I didn't read the whole thread either although I have read a lot of it before. If I am not mistaken all of his T5 are on individual reflectors and are HO and changed out every 6-8 months. He also has a whole whack of them on that tank.
I think at the end of the day you will probably spend more on his system than you will on a good MH system and even with increased electrical consumption the cost of replacement bulbs alone will balance that out.

[Buccaneer]

He does have over 800 watts of T5's on that tank which if it was 6' long as I suspect it to be would mean you would be using 3 MH equivalents prolly in the 250W range = 750W ... plus maybe some actinic supplementation of a couple hundred watts

Changing bulbs of any genre 6 to 8 months is IMO too drastic a schedule but hard to argue with success of his tank

I would hazard that anyone that disagrees with his choice of lighting has a tank looking as good or better than what he has accomplished

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

also reading the picture files a little photo shop doesn't hurt either, in fact there is so much hue shift and saturation in one he has a green and lime sailfin tang, and a teal powder blue tang.

Steve

Please post a pic of what you are referring to ... he does not own a powder blue tang so not sure what tank you are looking at ???


I did not mean for this to be a contentious issue

If you like MH then buy MH ... The question posed at the top of the page was whether it was necessary to have MH and that tank proves that it is not ... thats all

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Buk_A_neer

Please post a pic of what you are referring to ... he does not own a powder blue tang so not sure what tank you are looking at ???

the first pic at the very begining of the thread, you linked tothe second half and ya not a powder blue but a powder turquoise

http://http://reefcentral.com/forums...5&pagenumber=1

anyways no one said you need MH, but rather instead of screwing around with other types it would have been much more cost effective to go MH in the first place.. I had SPS under all types of lighting and I can from experence say while I have growth under PC's I never experenced the color and vibrance I get from MH.

Steve