lightsing

[compboy521]

I'm starting reef tank for the first time. I have been told that I need Metal Halide Lighting. Which I'm going to buy. What I'm wondering is how long do I need to keep them on? And how much is it going to affect the temp of the tank?

Any help would be great :wacko :roll

[Ram_Puppy]

hi Compboy! welcome to MAAST!

Metal Halides are great, but we need to examine what you want to keep before making the decision that you 'need' them.

Metal Halide is used for tanks with SPS, LPS, and Clams. most everything else can get by with T-5, Power Compacts, or VHO's.

Also, how large is your planned tank?

Metal Halide comes in 150 watt, 175 watt, 250 watt, 500 watt sizes.

as far as your lighting cycle, You probably don't want to go over 8 hours, but there are varrying opinions.

[GaryP]

First off, welcome to MAAST.

MH can have a pretty big impact on temp without some supplemental cooling. For anything from 250 watt and down you can usually use cooling fans. It really depends on the tank. I have 4 X 100 cfm cooling fans installed in the hood of my 125 gal. SPS tank that has 2 X 250 MH & 2 X 160 watt VHO. On the other hand, I have 1 X 40 cfm cooling fan on my soft coral tank that has 4 X 110 watt VHO.

A lot of people invest in chillers. They are a lot easy as far as worrying about tank temp. On the other hand they are expensive and use a lot of electricity.

[falcondob]

Welcome! Welcome! This is what we are here for!

Agree with Gary and Ram_Puppy.

MH = SPS, LPS, Clams = Lots more heat. You might need more fans or even a chiller. I am running 4x400 Watts on 300 gallons. Without the fans, the chiller runs a fair amount of time.

Have you decided on size and type yet?
John

[compboy521]

Thank you to all. I come to this site just about every day for the last year just reading and learning. I have learn a lot just reading the fourms on this site.
I have a 105 gallon tank. Right now I have about 50 pounds of live sand, and 40 pounds of some other type of sand. (sorry I forgote the name. It's isn't live) The reasean I want to get MH is because I want to be able to upgrade, or add anything that I want to the tank with out having to go out and buy a different set of lights. As you already know they arn't cheep, and I want to have to buy them once, if possible. I have been studing for 3 years before I have felt comfortable coming this far. I want to make sure to do it right the first time. Your advice so far has been invaluable..
Thanks
Matt

[compboy521]

I forgote I have about 65 pouds of Fugi live rock

[GaryP]

Studied for 3 years before jumping in? What are you, a mutant? Just kidding. I really do appreciate that approach. To many people throw water, salt, and fish in a tank and then come running here to ask for help after the fact. When I first got in the hobby there wasn't much in the way of help or resource materials available. Even the books weren't much help. It was pretty much all by trial and error with my lifestock unfortunately being forced to deal with my errors. So, good for you. Ask away, that's why we are here.

You may get different answers to your questions here. Some issues are a simply a matter of style and opinion. This hobby is a curious mixture of art, experience and science. In some things there are no right answers, just perhaps better answers. :)

If there is one thing I would suggest, its that you really look hard at the three biggest factors in the design of a reef tank: lighting, flow, and filtration. Doing a good job on those parts of the system will reduce 90% of your headaches down the road.

[falcondob]

Wish I taken more time to evaluate. Still don't know if you are going LR_Reef, LRFO, LPS, SPS, Softies, Predator.. any idea yet?

[compboy521]

sorry I'm going to be putting to gether a reef tank. I want to be able to put a lot of different types of coaral, finish, and things with out haveing to worry about lighting. Then I'm going to be looking into a calcium reactor.

[Thunderkat]

This reminds me of when I first started keeping a reef tank. I ask a question and people respond with abbreviations. They are right though, metal halides are needed for only a few critters. If you are just going to keep fish then you don't need metal halides. If you are going to keep soft corals then you don't need metal halides, and in fact metal halides are bad for some of the soft corals. I switched to metal halides and it nearly killed my bubble coral, had to move it to another tank with weaker lighting. If you keep the SPS (the corals that look like rocks or hard forms) or some clams (some don't need light at all, some need large amounts, read up on what you want to buy first) then you will need metal halides.

The lighting question is a tough question to ask but I recommend just reading about critters you want before you buy them or asking people lots of questions like you are doing now. Good job on the 3 years research, you should do fine.

[Derek B]

Well .. for a 105 gal tk and wanting to keep just about anything .... I'm thinking a couple 250 MH bulbs with some PC or VHO supplimentation or just 3 - 250 watt MH would be a great!

Before tearing down my 65 gal ... I was running 2 - 250 watt 20K XM bulbs ... I loved the color and was getting good results. I got into trouble when I swithced salts and lighting spectrum too quickly (ran 65K Iwasakis prior to the XM's ... big color shift to say the least).

There are sooooooo many different MH options and brands out there. Research (which you appear to be good at) and also seeing other aquarists setups is of utter importance. Make sure you know the different types of bulbs/ballasts availabe as there are big difference from one to the next. Really do you research here b/c there is large margin or error to end up with something you don't like or doesn't work. :o

Remember, There are many ways to a successful lighting setup .. and one lighting setup does not fit all. The most important factor in this whole endeavor of yours will be water quality. I've seen those with the best of everything fail miserably. It's the day to day care that separates the successful aquarist from the frustrated one.

Hope this helps and good luck!