Metal Halide Lighting 250 or 400 watt/10,000K ?

[djh]

I have a 110 with (2)400 watt 65K mh lights. I suppliment it with 2 110 vho actinics and 6 65 watt 88k PCs. I bought the 400 watt 10Ks and sold them for half price less than a month later. I like the look of the 65K light better. It gets hot I'm only 8 inches off the water. I run two fans blowing in. My chiller keeps it 79.3 most of the time.

 

[Circa]

Ok here is the thing...

I am looking into an Oceanic 175g tank as some of you may already know because of my thread. And I am wondering what is the best lighting, many individuals on this board and other people have told me to for sure go with mh lighting if you want to have the best and brightest lights. Lets face it every one likes mh lighting and its got to be the best out there.

I want to have a tank that is bright, and at the same time will be good for the corals and clams. Clams? Thats right, I for sure would like a maxima clam in my tank, and I am told that I need really good lighting for them to be happy.

So my question is really250w or 400w? I know the brighter the better but could I get away with 250w on a tank with alot of different corals and some clams? If so it would also help cause I don't want to get my tank to hot and have the plastic beams on the canopy over my tank melt (Like so many people have told me). One more thing is the 10k lighting at all yellowish in colour, I don't want that at all in fact I want it just bright and white, I will add some actinics as well...

What should I do?

Thanks,
Circa

 

[AnotherGoldenTeapot]

10K has most of the blue spectrum of sunlight with alot of the red end of the spectrum surpressed.

I have BLV 10K lights (BLV is the "real" manufacturer) - they give a very pleasing color.

Here's a link to their page on the 10K bulbs they do - the pdf has a color spectrum chart.
http://www.blv-licht.com/prod/frameset.asp?lang=en&prodid=28

Buying bulbs from the real manufacturer is somewhat more cost effective compared to buying the exact same bulb from an aquarium bulb supplier

 

[kjb]

Cast my vote for 10k HQI bulbs.
Beautiful, crisp white color, par value and the bulbs last longer.