Best color?? Growth?? 250 watt or 400 watt MH??

[johnwah]

Hi all,

I was thinking about upgrading my lighting to 250 watt MH Double Ended... but now I keep seeing some of the best tanks out there with 400 watt metal halides...

I want the best growth and the best color I can get... would it be better to have 3 250 watt DE with a lumenarc or just two 400 watt with lumenarc? I only have a 100 gallon tank..

I do not prefer shadows which is why I was initially opting for 3 250s.... but if I get better growth and color with the 400s than that is what I will go with...

Please help me with your wisdom...

 

[Bebo77]

no one really knows.. but most TOTM on RC run 400 watters....

 

[Acrylic_world]

For the tank that size you'll easily pass the flying color with 2x250w double ended and a few subs T5 for best coral growth as it produce enough par as one 250w double ended metal halide. In my experience setting up a few tanks for customer for a few 100 gallons are like this, even a few I just used Sun light retrofit 6 bulbs of T5 will light up the corals right away.

 

[johnwah]

yeah...the tank is kinda small for 400s... do 400s require me to change my current outlet to a 220v?

with 6 t5s? I dont have room for that many... my tank is only 18 inches in width... at most i could do with halide reflector is maybe 3

 

[ivgonmad]

I have seen 400w MH over a 60g Cube 24x24x24 and the tank was amazing, I myself have had a 400w 10k MH + 4x 39w T5HO over a 36x24x24 and it was also fine, if you go with SPS 2x 20k 400w bulbs you will get good growth AND color while 3x250 will give you better coverage and not very much lesser growth/color than the 400w bulbs. If you decide to go 250w I would do 2x14k bulbs on the ends and a 20k in the center (its a bonus that you can mix and match bulbs when you have more)

HTH

 

[Henry760]

I love my 400watters.If you have a tank of 24" or
deeper,want to grow mostly sps,and you want to
run 20k bulbs I'd recommend the 400's.

 

[johnwah]

so what im getting is that if i want to grow sps and to achieve best color and growth i need to go with two 400s over the 3 250s... did you guys have to redue your electrical outlet to accomodate the 400s? or does the ballast run on a regular outlet?

although my tank is only about 21 inches tall... not that deep of a tank...

 

[Henry760]

Most will run on a regular outlet..

 

[Lagger]

I love my 400watters.If you have a tank of 24" or
deeper,want to grow mostly sps,and you want to
run 20k bulbs I'd recommend the 400's.

OoOoo, shiney What bulb/ballast combo you running Henry?

 

[Henry760]

OoOoo, shiney What bulb/ballast combo you running Henry?

On my show tank I'm running 3x400w SLS Galaxy ballast w/3x400w XM 20K's.
I'm going back to Helios 20K's,they're a little bit bluer then the XM's(400w)..

 

[wishntoboutside]

very nice henrey. now i am begining to see why your stuff always looks so nice.
i have been using 250 de, pheonix bulbs and not having much growth problems i guess it depends on how fast one wants it to grow. color well good but the great tends to come and go with the weather lately.

 

[Lagger]

On my show tank I'm running 3x400w SLS Galaxy ballast w/3x400w XM 20K's.
I'm going back to Helios 20K's,they're a little bit bluer then the XM's(400w)..

Whoa! REally? Im running the 400w Galaxy also & to my eyes, in order of most blue goes:

XM 20k
Radium
Helios 20k

although I only ran the helios for maybe a week. You think it needs more time to burn in blue? :hmmmm: Bulbs always seem to get less blue for me as they burn in. Im running the Radium & thinking of going back to the XM...

 

[Henry760]

My last set of helios were used about 3mo when I
got them.I ran them for about 3mo,they seemed bluer
to me.The XM's seem to have a 14k'ish color to them IMO.

 

[johnwah]

so i guess nobody else with 250s is growing anything or has any color... does everyone really have 400s?

 

[DaveMorris]

I have a 300g that is 96"L x 24"W x 30"T and I am running two 400w 14,000K's in the middle and two 250w 12,000K's on the outside. I have a PFO dual 250 and a PFO dual 400 for ballasts. All four lamps are in Lumenarc mini reflectors. I have 8' of T5 actinics overdriven by a Icecap 440 ballast. I love the way the 14k lamps look. I have great growth on my SPS and so-so color.

 

[johnwah]

thanks dave... i love the mixing idea... conserve some energy while not losing power for the corals that need it.. i might have to go with something similar..

 

[DaveMorris]

Depending on your lamp choice, it is somewhat difficult to actually see the difference between the 400's and the 250's. The corals will certainly know, but it is still visually appealing. Here is my tank:

http://www.sdreefs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32832

It has been running for a couple of months now.

 

[Henry760]

Hit up gcarroll, He runs 5x250w DE's on his 225g.Seems he
doesnt have a problem with growth and color