400 watts halides

hi all am new to the forum i'll post intro later

i have a question first i'm running 2x15 k t5s and 2x 22k t5s i was thinking of putting a 400 watt halide in as well but only running for a few hours at midday the tank is a 400l and 18 inch deep is the 400 halide too much or will only running for a few hours be ok

thanks for any help advice

 

I run 3 400 watter's and 2. 110 watt VHO's on a 90 nowadays seems O.K to me.Corals all look happy

 

Crap, I thought 2x250 was going to be more than enough on my 90g w/ 2x96 03s.

1400w of light8)

 

I dont believe Tangster was implying less than 400 watts was inadequate

I think he was just saying that 400 would not be to much for Kev 101 the OPs tank

he was inferring the OP should not worry, rather than inferring you should start

Steve

 

thanks for the help so what your saying is run all the t5s +2x400 watt halides, should i use 20k bulbs or lower on the halides

 

Yes I was like Steve said not implying it was to much I was simply saying I don't see a problem with a single 400 w and all the T5 you have..

As for your question Kev . If you use 2 400 watts M/H on a 90 the type of corals you want to keep would dictate the amount of lighting.. If you wanted to keep all SPS then there is no such thing as to much ;light of proper spectrum. So if you wanted to keep stuff like Toadstools and zoas and junk like that then it would be total over kill and not needed .

So lets assume you are going sps dominant tank then the 2 400 M/H and a couple of T5's for actinic supplementation would be fine for hard stony corals but not at all needed for softs and LPS type corals ..

As for K values can't simple say 20 K bulbs differ so much from manufacturer to manufacturer its hard to say I have seen one call a 15 K to be more dark blue then others 20 K and vise versa . I would say get two 14 K SPS brand bulbs and then two UVL super actinics for the T5 run the T5 16 Hrs per day then the M/H 6 Hrs a day . Thats works for me ..

 

agree... I would do the 400w 20k's and switch your T5's to actinic. 20k is blue but not like an actinic blue... it's like piercing Caribbean blue. That's what I ran on my tank. If you don't like it, you could always go 14k on the metal halide... it's all preferance.

 

>>> but I like my tanks bluer though... so you could do like Tangster said and do 14-15k's.

 

if you want really blue ? get the 20 K M/H and run UVL super actincs in the t 5's

 

sounds like some nice ideas thanks guys i think i'll try both and see what i like best))