MH with supplemental lighting?

[jubbers]

If I put two MH pendants over my 55 Gal. aquarium would I need supplemental lighting or would it be fine?

 

[Adam Black]

It's really going to be a preference thing. I liked the way my 14k hamiltons looked but I like the color better after adding vho Super Actinic. My tank didn't need it, I didn't have any dark spots and all my corals got plenty of light, I just liked the color combo of the 2 different bulbs.

 

[jubbers]

oh! so it's not like a required thing. I could just have halides then?

 

[DrHank]

Supplemental lighting with metal halides is a personal preference. It isn't required. MH manufacturers hasv added 12K, 14K, 15K, and 20K color temperatures to add blue to the color of their tubes. I've used 4 - 250w 14K MHs on my 200gal for over 2 years. I recently added 4 - 110w VHO Super Actinics to simulate dawn and dusk and cut down on the MH photo period.

You don't need to add supplemental lighting it's a personal choice.

 

[jgking21]

I've just started with M/H's and I will be looking into adding supplemental lighting. Mainly to cut down on the M/H photo period, it creates a good bit of heat and the Actinics do add alot of good looking color to the corals.

 

[Clownfish518]

Depends a little on the bulbs you run. If you run a good 14k or 20k bulbyou should be fine. If you run 6500k or 10k then supplemental would be needed to get a fluorescent effect in cnidarans. Blue (450-460nm) and actinic (420-440nm) light elicits a fluorescent reflect from many cnidarians, as well as by adding some contrasting light spectra the aquarium will look much better. But you can get by with just MH

 

[jubbers]

thanks