70w MH -vs- 4.36w PC 29 gal BioCube

[saycheessee]

I am just trying to get everyone's opinion on what would be better. I want to keep sps but only have 4.36 in my biocube now. Would you suggest going to the 70w MH or stay with what I have??

[saycheessee]

No body has any opinion??

[bergzy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8921725#post8921725 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by saycheessee
No body has any opinion??

okay, okay...

i'll chime in...

pc's do a great job for sustaining and growing soft corals...mushrooms, zoo's ricordeas etc...

the modern pc's are so so so much better than the pc's i had in the early 90's...when all one had was 5500k mh and you were cutting edge for even thinking of getting the 6500k's!!! thus with oc's you could easily get away quite nicely keeping some lps such as hammer coral, candy canes etc.

now the big debate of metal halide...vs t5's! ;)

i am a metal halide guy and most likely will be until LED technology is reasonably priced with proven 'effective' history.

thus, i will let others (if they decide to speak up ;)) chime in on t5's and sps sustainability!

to keep sps...yes, i would highly recommend metal halide. imo, 70w halide on your 29g would barely be enough light for most sps. you would probably want to go with a 150w mh in the 10k, 14k or 20k range...whatever color appeals to you. i like the phoenix 14k's...some people hate them.

dont forget about temp regulation...which is a biggggg concern with tanks using halide. have a fan blow over the tank surface to remove heat and help with a little evap cooling. in the summer, you may want to look into a chiller to keep your tank at a good stable temp. nothing stresses sps better than temp swings (come to think of it..so does salinity issues, ca levels, alk levels, mg levels etc :)).

hope this helps a little! :)