Halide only w/o vho?

[panic]

My rock is a couple of weeks away from being finished cooking, and I'm adding finishing touches on my 180bb. My current setup has halide (2x 400se 12k Reeflux and 1x 250de 10k XM) and vho actinics. Is there any reason I should use actinics?


I want "floating" lighting:

I can use a floating canopy with mh and vho hidden inside,
or
the clean look of 3 Luminarcs attached to a barely noticeable aluminum rack resting on top of the tank. VHO would be unusable to achieve this look, and I would most likely have to increase photo on the halides.

I have 95% sps in this reef btw

[ski1297]

From what I know actinics are just for the look it gives the corals that glow. They will get all the food the need from the 10k and 12k. So if the tank looks to yellow for you then add an actinic to make it look more purple.

[Loverotties]

It also for the beging of the sunrise and sunset and MH is like full noon!

[Mike O'Brien]

IMO the fluorescence of the corals under the actinic's alone justify's their use. I went a year without them and now I just went with T-5's with Blue+ bulb's

[motorslave]

Most of that is a matter of taste. If the color your bulbs (MHgive you is too white or yellow for your liking try a higher K bulb. The 10k are generally white, as you get higher, say into 14k or 20k the kight gets bluer. The blue helps get that "pop" out of the coral. But wuth the higher spectrum, there is a general slowing of growth rates as the ideal K value is around 6500 k which is very yellow looking.

R

[Wiskey]

One thing with MH is that it is a point source light, so some coral branches shade others, with the florecent you may help to fill in some of the gaps in the light.

Whiskey

[panic]

I like the look with the vho, but will the corals notice? The crisp white-blue of the Reeflux 12k is an awesome color by itself, but the color does pop better with the vho. I think I'll get enough spread with 3 400s in Luminarc IIIs as far as reach goes.

[redwinger]

I personally run just 250w xm 20k's in luminarc reflectors with no actinics. I used to run actinics and kind of miss them but not really when I think about the clean pendant style look I have. As motorslave said it is all a matter of taste.

[JT]

It's a big matter of taste.

I recently swapped out the 175W lamps in the 120G display at the shop. It had been running with just 20KK's for the past year. I liked the color of the 20KK's but they appeared to be less intense than 10KKs. I replaced the lamps with Coralvue 10KK's but the tank then ended up looking too yellowish-white. I added a single 65W Power Compact actinic into the mix and it helped bring just enough of the "glow" back to the corals that I was missing but with the brightness I was lacking with 20KK's.

[Viv]

The actinics may prolong the life of you MH as they can be used separately to light up your tank, using your MH for less time and supplementing with the VHO's/cf's or T-5's.. I have read people say that the diurinal rhythm helps the corals (you know when the actinics go on, then the MH, then end with the actinics again at night) but I've also read that out on the reef there is a pop of intense light when the sun comes up that surpases actinics and MH anyway. Articles I have read have suggested that if you have high intensity that actinics are not necessary-the corals will survive and do well without actinics. So ultimately I think it depends on the intensity of the MH your using and personal preference for actinics-although if your MH is of low intensity....rambling....and not much help, sorry.

[panic]

It's all good help. It will be difficult going from something that works for me already. I think I know what I will do: I'm going to try halides only and stagger when they fire. I am going to attach all three Lumenarcs to a 1" aluminum rod from the top middle hole of the reflector - to keep them level and not have so many wires. I'll do another one of these underneath the socket on the back side of the reflectors. I'll rig the rod in the back in a way that I can easily add VHO end caps if I change my mind.