Lighting help..

[Keith184]

Ok so here it is. I just upgraded to a standard 135 demensions 72Lx18Wx24D. The lighting that came with it are 3x 150 watt halides and 4x 96w pcs. The pcs are burnt out and figure i may as well replace the halide bulbs too. Problem is I'm not sure what color combo to get. Ideally I'd like to make or buy an led setup for it but have no clue where to begin with that. Any suggestions for either of those would be very appreciated.

[+mcallahan]

What's your budget like?

[Timfish]

LED's are going to be very expensive so unless you have deep pockets I would stick with what you've got. I've got some LEDs on a couple of tanks and I really like them but I don't think they're cost effective yet. Also the 30,000 or 50,000 hr life expectancy is based on a 50% drop in output where the life expectancy for florescents is based on a 10% and metal halide is 20 or 30%. As far as color temp on the bulbs I'm of the opinion it needs to be matched to the corals you're getting. Some animals aren't going to care but the color of others can change quite a bit.

[Keith184]

As far as budget goes at the moment I'm pretty flexible with it being tax time I kinda figure thats extra money I can put into the tank. As far as corals go I currently have alot of softies, leathers,some zoas, aslo have several lps and a few small sps. I would like to go a lil more toward sps and keep it sort of ballanced out.