Lighting suggestions needed

[ellisz]

I am planning on upgrading my lighting. I currently have a 75 gal with a 4x55 PC fixture. Corals are only softies(zoos,leathers,shrooms,xenia and leathers)

I would like to start looking at some heavier light corals but am pretty happy with what I have. I mainly have frags so I just want them to grow as quick as possible.

I have been leaning towards a 2x250MH with T5 or similar actnics. But I have some questions... With 14k or higher bulbs, are actnics really necessary? If I am losing about a gal of water a day, will a MH setup make that worse? Will I see an increase in my electric bill(electronic ballast)? If I never went to harder corals, would this setup be way over kill? I have read that xenia are easy to keep and spread quickly but mine seem to not do so well even when my other corals do.

Lastly, would the MH setup be superior to a 4x96 PC fixture? I assume the PC fixture would not have to be as high off the water so I could swap it for my current fixture. Prices are not really that different though.

Thanks for any suggestions...

 

[captivereefs]

PC'S will do fine for softies but if you want to start moving up into SPS or clams MH is a must. Most frags of any type will also grow faster under MH than PC as well.

the 14K bulbs do alleviate the need for actinics but actinics are nice to have. A tank with just the actinics on looks so cool!! Also having a hood with actinics allows you a larger selecton of bulbs. Some of the 10K bulbs on the market look a little yellow and need the Actinics to balance them out!

A MH system may cause a little more evaporation but not that much more. A MH set up is vastly superior to a PC set up.