best light for growth

[reefman77]

what light gives the best growth for SPS and LPS coral. i wil be setting up a 40g breeder frag tank in my basement. the tank will dosent need to look nice. i just need the coral to grow like crazy. if 5500k bulb is what i need, that is what I will get

[Entropy]

I would go with the 6500k Iwasaki (250w) halide on an EYE ballast. The only downside is the coloring of the corals might not be that great, so you might have to move them to a different light setup to get them to color up if you intend to sell them.

[XeniaMania]

I heard 20K does the best job growing them. I've used 10k, 14lk and 20k, and haven't noticed any real differences between all 3. However, I do love how the 20K looks.

[dalbrecht]

I agree about the 65k lamp giving the best growth. A 40 long with 65k t5's would probably give you more even light throughout your growing area tho. If you've already got a breeder the MH will work well. Another option is a small shallow tray with bluer flourescent lighting to promote coloring up after you've grown out the frags.

[bluemanta]

the shorter the kelvin range the closer to sunlight and hence the more growth. anything towards the blue spectrum has lesser growth factor but it also provides light for your low light specimens as blue penetrates most. i personallly prefer 20k with T5 true blue at 420nm. Using actinics will flouresce as supplements even more...