Lighting

[cornnfamily]

I have always used VHO's in my tanks. However, I am looking at retro'ing my tank with some metal-halide (3 bulbs). I plan to keep two of my 6' VHO's on the hood, when I retro it. My question is what size halide would be good to by. I was thinking three 175W halide's and my two VHO's. My tank is a 125gal long tank.

Thanks for your help....
cornnfamily :D

 

[jhnrb]

Welcome to the forum and thankyou for the question. It never hurts to occasionally revisit the basics. I do all the time even after 30 years of salt water projects. I would recommend you read the Helpful Articles on page three of that Forum. start with the bottom one and work your way up. I truly feel that once you are done your question will be answered sufficiently enough for you to make a decision. after that read the articles on acclimation or coral acclimation. these articles should provide you with all the insite to make a good decision. finally I recommend subduing the light and gradually come up to full strength or shorten photoperiod and gradually bring it back up. you will need to watch the corals to see how they react. you could also possible raise the mh and gradually lower them to their final position thereby increasing the intensity gradually. hope this helps a bit. good luck and keep us posted. any lingering questions please come back here to your thread and post. I am sure others will want to weigh in on this thread also. just pick the responses that best suit your needs as there is always more than one way to get there. let us know what you do and keep us posted on your upgrade. pictures before and after would be apprciated also. good fishin