Lighting Question

[shaginwagon13]

Im planning a 300 gallon that will be going in this month and I had a question regarding the Wattage of my lighting. For my 200 gallon the halides I have are 250W and thats pretty good....What are the bennifits of going to a 400W halide system and do you think its worth it??

Thanks

[jhildebrand]

it's only worth it if you need it. i switched to 400W on my 260 only after wanting to get into SPS and be able to grow them everywhere. 250's will be fine for everything else unless you have a super tall tank. since the upgrade some of my LPS haven't been as happy with the increased instensity. it all depends on what you're keeping i guess.

[shaginwagon13]

Well i plan to mainly have SPS and the tank is going to be 30 inches tall so Im thinking the 400W lighting would be a good idea.

With the 400W lights will i experiance more algae blooms in the beginning?

[alextheromanian]

youll get an algae bloom anyways...i had it in my 29 g 250w and my 75 219w T5...its just stages every tank will go trough in the beginning.

id like to see some build pictures and final result please :)

[drummereef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14727175#post14727175 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by shaginwagon13
Well i plan to mainly have SPS and the tank is going to be 30 inches tall so Im thinking the 400W lighting would be a good idea.

With the 400W lights will i experiance more algae blooms in the beginning?

If you are doing SPS on a 30 deep then I'd go for the 400's. A lot of guys have great result with the 400 watt Radiums. I'd start clicking around the Large Tank Forum for some ideas. ;)