Life of Mh bulbs and Coral Growth rates

[rhinonm]

I have 3 175w mh bulbs that i will be buying and am thinking of going the iwasaki route. What would be the life on these bulbs be if i ran them 9 hours a day?

Also i have a tank full of small sps frags that i am trying to grow out. I am thinking that if i splurge on these expensive bulbs instead of buying say cheap bulbs i will see alot more growth over the next year. Any thoughts?

[kdblove_99]

I would think the bulbs would last 12 months minimum. Yeah if the more expensive bulbs have better par you will get better groeth

[kgross]

To get the best growth go with a 6500K bulb, will not be the prettest, but you normally get the best growth out of them. For color you want to move up the color temp. Iwasaki bulbs are good bulbs. Don't know much about there 175 watt line. The 6500 K 250 watt and 400 watt bulbs are very common in coral farms for fast growth, then the frags are moved to a shipping tank under higher K bulbs to help color them up so they look good before they are shipped out.

Kim