better color from 250w or 400w?

[mc-cro]

I am currently running 250w radiums, and I have decent color, and good growth. But most of the tanks that I drool over have 400watters.

I guess my question, is there really a difference in the quality of colors you get from a 400w vs a 250w radium?

Or is color truly more about nutrient management? I keep my nutrients low, and get good colors, but I want better.

fwiw, I try to keep p04 less than .05, and my nitrates are always 0. I can not get the nitrates to increase.

 

[Giancarlo]

Well i think a change like that would depend on the size of your tank, more specifically the depth, but i would doubt that change would be necessary. What i would consider is parameters, though i am in the same situation so my advice might not be the "best". A few suggestions given to me are iodine and potassium supplements. I have not tried either yet as i am still waiting to get P04 up to a detectable amount, then move forward from there.

 

[mc-cro]

Thanks for the input. The tank is 60x24tx26w, and I have lumenarc mini's. So I have pretty good spread. I have a DSB, so the SPS on the sand bed are about 20" from the surface. The lights themselves are around 14" from the water.

I can grow SPS on the sand bed, I also I keep clams on the sand bed. The sps grow, but I wonder if I could get better color all around with 400w?

I am considering adding another 250w, so that I have more consistent spread. But, is 750w of 250w the close or the same as 800w of 400w?

 

[oneradtek202]

i think the i would stick with 3x250 radiums. I am a radium junky myself and love them (if ran correctly on PFO HQI M81 ballast) because of the color and the growth you get out of them. however i have not heard too muchwith 400 watters. i would say stay away from that and just add another 250 watter. But why are you blaming color on your light? given adequate lighting, which sounds like you have, your colors are mainly based on other things such as stability of alk, nutrients and other stuff. also, why are you running a DSB on a SPS system? IME they are problematic for SPS tanks.

 

[mc-cro]

thanks for the insight, and just to be clear, I am not blaming the my SPS color on my lights. I have really good color now. but you always wonder if it could be that much better. Many of the tanks I see that are in the upper echelon are just hammering their tanks with lights, and usually 400w. BTW, my 250W readiums are being ran on the Lumatek 400w dimmable ballast, which is about as close to M81 ballast output as you can get without actually being an M81 ballast.

I hate my DSB.

 

[oneradtek202]

well if its working for you then id say dont change it. just my opinion

 

[SteezySPS]

fwiw my buddy switched from 250w radiums to 400w bulbs and he said it was so bright the colors looked washed out and it was hard to see? i'm paraphrasing, i think he had strong reflectors as well but he ended up switching back to 250w, but anyways as far as colors go 250w is more than enough unless you run a really deep tank. i run 150w on a 20" high tank and i'm happy with the colors and i have sps near the bottom as well. maybe not enough for growth but my tank is small and over crowded so i dont mind that

 

[BlueDartReefer]

We are running three 400W MH's on our 265G which we upgraded from a 90G about 18 months ago. For the first six months we tried running the old 175W's and the tank just seemed to dim. Prior to a bad batch of copper laced carbon, our corals looked better than ever. Many of these colonies we've had for six+ years. I'm sold on bright lights. Not only for the corals colors and growth, but also for my personal preference.

 

[Acrokeeper3729]

I ran 250w Radiums in lumenbright reflectors on my 300g for over a year, I swapped them out for 400w Radiums for 6 months and went back to the 250's The 400w were just too much for all but 3 acros that I have that love high light. The others were getting burnt too often. I went back to the 250w ones. Now I run T5's but thats another story. Of the 250 or 400w Radiums on your tank, I would stay with the 250's all day long.

 

[mc-cro]

Thanks for the info guys. I am going to stick with 250's, but add a 3rd lumenarc reflector for the middle of the tank. That way I have 3 250w instead of going with 2 400w