Lighting 180G (72x24x24)

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Love the look of MH (shimmer) too much to give it up on my main reef. Also, like Burrows stated, I would have a hard time shelling out for new bulbs all the time. I usually get a very good useful lifespan from my 14000k Aquaconnects (almost 2 years on my last set). Still got good growth & the colour never changed although it was not as bright (based on PAR meter, it was time to change but my corals were still doing fine).

Anthony

[Marmot74]

I also see all the talk abut needing a chiller if using MH. Is this not so?

[burrows14]

IMO you dont need a chiller in our climate. I have never ran one and know of very few people who have

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

It also depends on the room its kept in & how warm your house normally gets.

My place is usually nice and cool, at least 5-10 degrees cooler than the upstairs suite. If I open the front & back doors, most days I'll have a nice little breeze blow through.

In the summer, on the hottest days, I turn on my portable AC unit and that keeps my room temp between 24-26C and my tank at this point doesn't go above 27-28C when the halides are on. I may also switch to reverse photoperiod on the hottest days (nights on at night with the windows open and off during the day when its blazing hot outside).

I find the AC is the best for me since I overheat easily and an AC keeps the home cool.

[ALang]

Pardon another noobie trying to understand everyone's short-hand. But what is a DE metal halide light? Sorry, but just trying to understand better.

[ALang]

Also, I have a Coralife Aqualight Pro with 3x 250W 14,000K MH and 4x 64W actinic power compacts with moon lights in LEDs. My question is: why doesn't my tank have that clean blueish look that everyone else's pics seems to have? Mine seems yellowish by comparison. Do I need to change my bulbs, they are only 11 months old (hence me trying to understand "DE"). I just bought a few SPS frags, some LPS, and trying hard not to kill them. My leathers and mushrooms (my first Noobie corals) are doing well, and now I am trying to move up to the amazing tanks that everyone else has (me want one, too!!). Thanks. Loving this site and reading/learning lots, but trying to guesstimate what most of the short-handed writing means.

[intarsiabox]

DE is Double Ended, it has electrical points on each side of the bulb. I believe your fixture is DE. The other type is mogal which is a screw in MH bulb. If you are still using the original bulb you will probably want to upgrade to a higher quality bulb and then you will get the proper coloring of a 14K bulb.

[ALang]

OK. Thanks. It is pretty obvious now that you mentioned Dbl Ended as DE.
And I do agree that I will need to change them very soon. That's why I am seeking advice. But with all the bewildering arrayed brands of bulbs out there, can someone please suggest a few (readily available, pls) that I can try, in order to get that nice blueish color? Do I need to go higher than 10,000K ?? Right now I have the 10,000K ( thought they were 14,000K) Coralife brand bulb that came with the fixture. Don't ever remember the lights as being that blue, though.