200 gallon reef tank metal halide help!

[Vishaalkumar]

i got a 6ft canopy with 3 175watts 14000k bulbs for a good price i was thinking to upgrade the 3 bulbs to 250watt HQI and keep my 2 36" Coralife with 2 atinics and 2 6500k i really like these power compacts they really make my tank bright. do you think that the 6500k's would be too much for the metal halides?

[Lampshade]

I've found the most growth from XM 10K bulbs, but far better color with other 12-14K bulbs.

You will have to get new ballasts for the 250W bulbs, and make sure that the larger bulbs fit in your fixture.

6500K is REALLY low for a salt tank, they don't have much in the blue spectrum that coral likes, and lots in the yellow/green that algae likes. So you will be helping your algae more than coral, and algae really doesn't need help Use your PC lights as all actinic for color, they have such low light output that putting "grow" lights on there won't be helping nearly as much as the halides.

[Veng68]

what corals will you be keeping? if lps & softies......... you can get away with 175's but if you want SPS then 250-400's would be suggested.

Cheers,
Vic

[Vishaalkumar]

thank a lot guys for the help! i have decided to build a new canopy im going to make a interesting one i will post the build promising you guys it will be a looker i will use my 175 metal halides because the bulbs are fairly new near October will switch to the HQI 250 14000k im going to start my build tomorrow as i'm going to the Canucks game