250W or 400W

[jer77]

For a 180 gallon tank 72X24X25 which MH bulb wattage should I get? I have sps corals and lots of other softies, LPS too. I already have 2 250W bulbs from my last tank one 10K one 20K. Also what kelvin should the bulbs be? I'm thinking of getting 20K bulbs because I like the blue color, but not too blue. Any bulb opinions?? Thanks.

[rhino509]

some might say you need the 400 watters for certain coral colors to really pop,but i have seen many very nice and colorful tanks running 250 watt halides.hell, i have seen nice colorful tanks when they were using t5s so........just my thoughts.

[bertoni]

I think 250 W would be fine for a tank that's about 2' tall. 400 W would work, but I doubt the animals would do any better. I'm assuming that the setup has a good reflector, like the PFO parallel reflector. Some bulbs are a lot more efficient than others, too. This site has a lot of data:

http://www.reeflightinginfo.arvixe.com/

Bulb choice has so much personal taste involved I try not to say too much. I don't currently run with bluish bulbs, and I didn't like the Hamilton 20,000 K bulbs I did try.

[tmz]

Depends on what you wan't to keep. 24inches is the border line between 250s and 400s. Also the bluer you go the less intense the light. Sps will probably love the 400s but if you keep them at mid tank on up the 250s will do fine. Conversely , you may have some trouble will open brains(trachyphylia, welsophylia ,scolymia and cynarina) under 400s even down low. You will probably also have a tough time keeping Blastomossa Wellsi.

[jer77]

Well I would have 4 bulbs in probably lumenarc mini stealth reflectors. Two of the bulbs are going to be the old ones that are 250W. So I guess I should just stick with the 250's if they will be good enough for my sps to survive at mid to high level in the tank.

About the color temp I could just go half 10K and half 20K. It will be that way on one side anyways. I take care of a 450g tank that has it half and half and it seems to look good. I'm gonna miss not having any actinics though.

Has anyone tried the Helios 20K SE bulbs? I've heard they were good and lots use them. Does it matter what ballast you use with them? I understand the whole magnetic, probe, pulse, HQI, electronic ballast types and have read the literature on which bulbs go with what ballast. My question should be even though the Helios SE bulbs recommend the probe start ballasts, will there be any difference in bulb color/intensity if I use an electronic ballast? I ask because I have another tank with a phoenix 14K 250W DE bulb and a Hamilton 14K 250W DE bulb both running on electronic ballasts and both of their colors are not even close to tinted in blue. They don't even look like 10K bulbs do. So I'm wondering about electronic ballasts. I use both ARO and Ice-cap ballasts.

Any thoughts?

[rhino509]

i think it should be fine,from what ive learned,even corals that need a lot of light to grow and colors to pop,dont need a lot to live and be healthy,just dont get the as high intense colors.i have sps under 15o watt halides w/130 watt pc acinics at the half down area and they are doing fine,just not growing super fast is all.just my thoughts.

[reefnetworth]

I have Ushio 14K and they have a med-light blue, not as dark as Ushio 20K, theyre almost Actinic looking. deep blue-purple color.
JDM :smokin: :cool: :p

[setec69]

I have a 180, and I am running 3x150 halide and 4x96w actinics. I am running 10k on my halides and I have SPS on mid to top of my tank and they seem to doing great. They color up nice and have decent growth.

Just my 2 cents.

[oct2274]

250 DE's with good reflectors.

[sammyfish]

250w DE bulbs would be fine. I'd suggest the Megachrome 14.5 K. Nice white light with a hint of blue. Plus high PAR.