what is the best lighting

[Tom_Shannon]

what is the best lighting to have fora reef tank do i got with MH or T5 or both if so what colours

i was thinkng of haven just MH but do i need the blue in it

thanks

[Feelers]

The best light for coral growth is a yellowish white (they are actually "wanting" red light but that would look horrid), but noone really uses those colour bulbs on their tank(as the only colour) because they look ugly. Remember the blu-er the bulb the less can be used for photosynthesis.

MH's are generally considered far superior, but they make lots of heat and use heaps of electricity. I think what many do is use MH's supplimented with t5's to get the colour light they are looking for. Mhs also have more penetrative depth, meaing you can have corals deeper down.

Having said that their are some amazing tanks with only t5's, running as many as can physically fit above the tank.

Remember this is just for SPS stoney corals, if you just have LPS softies go with t5's, you will be able to get the colour scheme you want and you wont have massive electricty bills, from memory reefs bill from his tank alone was $3000 if I remember correctly!

[Tom_Shannon]

Thanks i have a 75w MH running at the mo that i was going to use on my fresh water tank it is quite yellow looking im only using it until i get some 3foot T5 bulbs (if anyone has any) was going to combin the 2 and just use those

I brought one coral to day first one its a frogspawn (octopus) and its all open and looks good

So any one in hams got any frags thay want to sell me my clown would realy like and anemone to call home anyone please

[suphew]

I use a couple of blue 3 foot T5 tubes on my tank, I've been able to get some from reef, but the last lot I imported from Singapore. If your Mh is looing yellow, you could try going to a higher kelvin rating. People generally use 10k or 14k but you can go to a 20k which is very blue/chrisp looking. The down size to going to higher kelvin bulbs is you get less light as you go up which is why 10/14k combined with blue fluro's is so common.