metal halides or compact florecents

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
an arm and a leg
 
Halide. Well worth the money. Especially for a 10 gallon. In comparison to the one I need for my planted 75 (soon to come) a ten will be a steal.
 
ive personaly have a 400 watt metal halid light made for outdoors. watter proof houseing the works. can run off 110 or 220 use to grow tomatos with it lol . gonna use it for the lighting of my 300 gal stock tank im getting soon
 
dude a mh would have to be like 15-20 " away from a 10 gallon or your corals will fry from the water temp getting too hot. wont get very good results from that far away. you can get great results out of pc's these days and they are cheaper. if it was a bigger tank id say mh but a 10 is small youd need a chiller for sure. lots to spend on a 10 gallon. go pc and spend other money on a sump and refugium. more water u got the easier your job will be. and the sump and refugium could be used for frags as your corals will soon outgrow the 10 and need to be trimmed. watchout for chemical warfare man. reefs are fun. be patient and use good judgement or you WILL fail with such a small set up.
 
Plus your corals wouldn't get any blue spectrum (very important). Unless you use a 20000K halide bulb your corals will quickly bleach out. I HATE PC's though, they burn out quick and are very expensive to change. Try mounting some Very High Outputs. Their actinic is much prettier too.
 
In my opinion, metal halides would be overkill on a 10g tank. Just get the compact flourescent lights and use the few houndred dollars you'd be saving not going with the mh lights and use it towards live rock, corals, ect. I've been running a 29g reef for a little over a year just running compact flourescents and I haven't had any problems are far as the corals being healthy and growing, just make sure to give them the suppliments they need.
 
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