Lighting

[goavs21]

Any concerns with replacing my 2 - 6700Ks (in a 4x 55watt, with 2 actinics) with a dual 175 or 250 MH setup??

What I'm looking at is the distance between the custom hood and the water surface. The hood is made from 1x6", and is actually ~ 4-5" off the top.

Do we need to place some sort of barrier between the two??

What about a UV shield??

Any good retro setups we've seen lately??

 

[goavs21]

Gotta go HQI??

Any thoughts??

 

[goavs21]

Bump!

 

[reefland]

Hard to make any lighting recommendation without knowing what you are keeping and what you plan on keeping in the future. In general more lighting is better.

A splash guard is not a bad idea, but not totally needed either.

With single ended bulbs you typically won't need a UV shield.

Your hood does sound a bit cramped for halides though. Any pictures of it?

 

[goavs21]

I am just looking to provide enough light to keep my system flexible.

I only have a nice little patch of star polyps with my ~70lbs of LR, that includes a few different marcos. I would like to keep some stonies, possible clam or two, maybe even a light loving anemone, somewhere in the future.

I also hear people upgrading their lights pretty often, investing this much cash, I would like to think I might be set for a while.

The more I read, the more I am leaning towards HQI halides. Higher intensity, more efficiency, not a whole ton more expensive, why not??

 

[reefland]

The more I read, the more I am leaning towards HQI halides. Higher intensity, more efficiency, not a whole ton more expensive, why not??

I'm a big HQI fan, I use them on my tank. I think you'll need to toss out your hood if you take that route. Or make some kind of modification. HQI lighting puts out serious heat. I have 3x250w HQI and it really heats my 180g tank up -- even with a oversized room AC. I have my HQI's 10 inches off the water. I have a bigger heat issue now than I had with 400w halides 6 inches off the surface. I was actually expecting the tank to run cooler with HQI's as many others have reported.