Metal Halide

[VampAro69]

Will a regular shop light, metal halide at about 150 watts help plant growth?

Ill take imput from anyone. Its somthing you can get from home-depot and its about 400$ cheaper than one from the lfs.

[tylerperkins]

halide is halide as far as i know. i was thinking the same thing for my reef tank

[VampAro69]

Exactly what I wat thinking. The bulb I have and the bulb in the LFS above the coral are the same LOOKING I dont know if they have floursent rays or whatever, I heard they will work and I heard that they will not.

[Gator]

Depends on the color spectrum of the MH bulb. 6700K is best for plants and most shops MH bulbs are between 3K and 5K.

[nuggets]

halide is halide as far as i know. i was thinking the same thing for my reef tank
no its not it goes by kelvin you want a metal halide that puts out 5000 ke;vin to 6500 kelvin thats for growth if you want your plants to flower them you use 2700 kelvin .thats the red side of the spectrum the higher the number of kelvin is white to blue color. and if you have a reef tank you have to have 5000 kelvin or higher or your stuff will DIE :headbang2

[nuggets]

http://www.planetbulbstore.com/index.html

[tylerperkins]

no its not it goes by kelvin you want a metal halide that puts out 5000 ke;vin to 6500 kelvin thats for growth if you want your plants to flower them you use 2700 kelvin .thats the red side of the spectrum the higher the number of kelvin is white to blue color. and if you have a reef tank you have to have 5000 kelvin or higher or your stuff will DIE :headbang2




and now i know

[VampAro69]

Thanks Detroit, that is why this site is awesome. Ill look into the bulbs after work today.

[Danyal]

the red side of the spectrum the higher the number of kelvin is white to blue color. and if you have a reef tank you have to have 5000 kelvin or higher or your stuff will DIE :headbang2
actually a very common bit of misinformation, corals will not die if kept under lower kelvin lights, they just will look brown, however they often grow very quickly because fo the higher par. most issues people have with corals dying after they switch to lower kelvin lights is the corals are stressed out because they suddenly get overwhelmed by a very high par light.

[duke33]

How about sodium vapor....they look red. EDIT My studies suggest not to use Halide for a planted tank.

[Danyal]

MH can be used for planted tanks, it just isn't needed for many set up. look at some of takashi amano's larger setups, he often uses MH

[duke33]

MH can be used for planted tanks, it just isn't needed for many set up. look at some of takashi amano's larger setups, he often uses MH:( My bad, I was thinking of Halogen.:)

[cassharper]

:( My bad, I was thinking of Halogen.:)

yeah, a good majority of halogen energy is wasted as heat. Like stated above, a lot of Amano's set ups use MH and if you find a ADA dealer they will sometimes sell ADA MH bulbs. Be prepared to shell out for the bulbs though, they're very expensive.

[5am]

if i have a 400w metal halide that i got from a hydroponics store... is it strong enough for a low-tech/light plant set up in a 8x2x20"? i was thinking just have this one light in the middle of the tank...

[t0p_sh0tta]

You've have one ridiculously bright spot with a bunch of algae. How big is the light? With a low-light/tech setup, you don't want to go with much over 1.5 wpg (depending on the type of source. T5, PC, MH, etc.). Once you get above there you have to deal with algae.