Metal Halide

[Crazy fishes]

Me again. I was wondering do you need to have actinic blue tubes if you have a metal halide lighting system. In light of todays failed attempt to incorporate the V2 skimmer in my 24g D&D, I was thinking of getting the K-2 viper upgrade but was unsure on what wattage is best? Of course more is better but is it too much!!?

Regards

 

[Colin_T]

if you get a metal halide globe with some blue in its colour spectrum you do not need the actinics. A globe between 10,000 & 14,000Kelvin is ideal.
If you do run a halide make sure it doesn't sit too close to the tank otherwise it can warm the water up very quickly.
As for the wattage it depends on the tank size and what corals you want to keep.

 

[@ombomb]

I believe that tank is roughly an 18" cube, for which a single 150W would be ideal for just about anything's lighting requirements

 

[Colin_T]

150watts on an 18inch cube would be heaps. A 75w or 100w would probably be fine for it.

I have a 150w on a 3x18x18 with acroporas and they are doing fine.