Used MH lighting

mykpoz · Post by **mykpoz** » Tue May 22, 2007 10:47 am

Anyone have any inexpensive MH lighting? ( i see Andy's post, but it is more then i am wanting to spend)

I currently have a 75g reef tank with t5's things are doign fine, but i wll be upgrading to a 90g reef tank and have thought about looking at adding some VHO for actinic and/or a MH or two for some extra lighting...

i also know when it comes to MH lights, there are some good ones and bad ones out there.... are there any lights i should look for vs ones i shoul d steer clear of?

Thanks in advance

DrHank · Post by **DrHank** » Tue May 22, 2007 5:08 pm

You may want to consider just adding a few more T5's. I'm running a 110 with only 4 - 54w and it's doing fine. A fellow reef enthusiast (Griffin) is runing 8 with many SPS. If you really want a good retro MH set-up, look at Hellolights or Reef geek. You're going to need at least a pair of 250w.

mykpoz · Post by **mykpoz** » Tue May 22, 2007 8:46 pm

i have been thinking seriously about running the 4 T5's now, as all white, while adding 2 VHO's for actnic, as i have not fallen in love with the T5 actinic.

This of course means i would want to invest in the individual reflectors....

Bleh!

DrHank · Post by **DrHank** » Tue May 22, 2007 9:13 pm

Now you're talking. I'm not crazy about T5 actinic either. The 65w PC actinic I have on my 29 puts out more blue than my 54w T5 actinic.

I think you'd be very happy with that combination.

sb1227 · Post by **sb1227** » Wed May 23, 2007 7:21 pm

Yep, VHO really has the best actinic color. If I can remember which it is, one of the T5 actinics is much more blue, I don't like the actinics I've tried yet.

Mike, I agree with Doc on the MH. That's one thing where you do get what you pay for. If you ever decide to use them go ahead and save your money and get a good setup. It sounds like you'd do better to add T5s to what you have. I've just about decided the secret is getting the right mix of bulbs (T5), but I don't know exactly what that mix is yet.

If you want to do a test, I have just the MH cheapie fixture to convince you that it's money well spent to get a good one.

I'll happily let you borrow it.

redpheonix · Post by **redpheonix** » Thu May 24, 2007 10:17 pm

My parents are running a 125 reef on 4 4ft vho bulbs... i posted some pics on the general forum under some pics of my parents tank... i think you would do really well with the 2 super actinic bulbs on your tank so that you dnt end up with to much white light... and they give off good quality light, and lesss heat than MH too...