Are MH's really the way to go

[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

[Willow]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

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

not a powder anything, it looks like a naso.

somewhere on that thread there is a video if you don't believe those colors are real. i believe he used prodibio and zeovit so it's not surprising the colors are so vibrant.

[Snappy]

I was thinking about adding some extra lighting to my system. I think I'll take a look into some T5's and see if I can mount them into my existing unit. Even if those pictures are tweeked a little with photoshop the stuff looks great.

[aquanot]

Allright already ! The colour may be because of the combo of bulbs .On my 3 foot tank I have 2 -21 watt 20,000k actinics 1-39 watt HO 6500k and 1-21 watt 6500k for a wopping total of 102 watts .I keep softies ,LPS ,crocea and squamosa clams .The clams are on the bottom off the tank and most of the time the mantles are fully extended down to the sandbed. I find the colour just right,not too white or too blue.

[bnhreef]

Hey all,

I just wanted to pipe in here one last time. Cam, the originator of this thread, asked me several questions regarding his desires for a larger setup. We all know that there are several solutions to several issues or requirements in reefing. I just gave him my personal opinion.

Hi my name is Brad and I am lazy. I've been lazy now for several years. My last lazy trip was yesterday.

All jokes aside, I try to maintain a reef with minimal effort. I do however like an open top tank and I find myself in the water arms deep quite often.

I have one 250W DE Geisman in a PFO pendant over my tank. That's it. One day if I'm richer, I may need another pendant. I like the pendants because they offer me availability to my tank (I can get in there easier, also I can shut the pumps off and admire things from overhead).

I do wish I could cover more of my corals with a blanket of light as offered from VHO's, T5's, and PC's...Also, I think my bulb is a 14500k, which offers some fluorescing aspects to the corals but not as much as I want. If I was to add another light, it would be a 20000K bulb.

I don't like to spend continually on equipment so I went with MH's, hoping that I won't have quality of light loss as soon as the other fluorescent type bulbs.

Cam is correct to have asked the forum for differing opinions. I just found what works for me, today. That may change tomorrow.

The article posted on reefcentral and alluded to earlier in this thread about "iwan's" reef aquarium is Switzerland is an interesting one. I never thought about where exactly the color in corals come from. I just assumed it was contained the pigments created by the zooxanthelae (sp?) to trap photons. It never occured to me that it might be in the proteins coded by the DNA of the coral itself, makes sense....

I admire what "iwan" has achieved, I just don't want to do water changes weekly as I am lazy. To be honest with all of you, I set up a tank last August and I didn't do a water change until last month when Cam started up his 20 gal. I skim and grow macro, that's it ...but in the last month I have done almost a 100% water change.

I'm lazy (accept for this long-winded post)


Brad

[Buccaneer]

Thats a naso tang by the looks of it on the right and it looks more grey in the body than turquoise to me ( I also own a naso tang and it looks a awfull lot like that one with MH lights ) ... the only other fish is a sailfin tang in the middle and a purple tang to the left ... any of those you calling a powder brown tang ?

You may want to get that monitor of yours checked or a optomitrist appointment may be due

anyways no one said you need MH,

the author of this thread was advised that MH was the only way to go ... I was merely pointing out that there are alternatives to MH and I doubt that these T5's would cost more than a MH setup

and we are not talking about using PC lighting for SPS as a alternative ... instead that beautifull tank is run with 100% T5's

PS ... if you read that monster thread that got auto split by the RC forums ... the tank is 2 years as a mostly SPS dominated tank ... FOWLR previous to that

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Buk_A_neer

Thats a naso tang by the looks of it on the right and it looks more grey in the body than turquoise to me ( I also own a naso tang and it looks a awfull lot like that one with MH lights ) ... the only other fish is a sailfin tang in the middle and a purple tang to the left ... any of those you calling a powder brown tang ?

Um, monitor is fine, didn't spent this much money on it to be not fine
and Naesco/powder blue I am always getting mixed up so either way they should be blue, and yes I did get my glasses and have another look and where did powder brown come from?

Originally Posted by Buk_A_neer

the author of this thread was advised that MH was the only way to go ...

you know, I just reread this thread and I didn't see a statement at all implying MH are the only way to go, I see a lot of in the long run you'll save money by going MH, and a lot of personally I like MH the best out of all my set ups, but yes we all know you don't need MH, if the tank is shallow you can get away with NO lighting and if you use the vodka and chemical method you can probably have a beautiful tank, but as most of us 99% are not into fussing 3 times a day or daily or some even weekly and are not willing to shell out the big bucks for these new systems on the market, in all reality can you say anything bad about going with MH aside from you might need to find a way to cool it down if your set up is designed wrong?

Originally Posted by Buk_A_neer

and we are not talking about using PC lighting for SPS as a alternative ... instead that beautiful tank is run with 100% T5's

It doesn't matter weather it is PC or T5HO (which we can't seem to get in Canada anyways, or if we can not that easy) with the chemical regiment he is doing, he would probably get the same result. Besides a PC is a T4Ho anyways which has an intensity higher than a T5, but its down fall is its folded design which ends up making ~33% of the light unavailable.

Originally Posted by Buk_A_neer

PS ... if you read that monster thread that got auto split by the RC forums ... the tank is 2 years as a mostly SPS dominated tank ... FOWLR previous to that

I saw the sps but I missed the 2 years, to much reading, well actually tired of sifting through the RC crap to find some useful info. I remembered why I don't go there any more now, thanks.

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

you know, I just reread this thread and I didn't see a statement at all implying MH are the only way to go

Originally Posted by Cam

Hi,
I recently was told by my brother-in-law, aka bnhreef, who is the smartest guy in all of the world, if you ever want coral that MH's are the way too regardless of the wattage and k of power compacts they just wont compare to Metal Halide lighting. Is this true?
Thanks
Cam

the above was the first post in the thread ... you did not have to go any further than that to see who I was responding to

The author of this thread asked a question and I was just giving him a alternate opinion ( ie different than yours )

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Buk_A_neer

The author of this thread asked a question and I was just giving him a alternate opinion ( ie different than yours )

Pretty sure we have a rule that nobody can have an opinion different than Stircrazy's....or at least he keeps asking for one!! hahahaaaa