a light question?

[marie]

I always assumed a watt of light was the same with any bulb, fluorescent or metal halide. So when my icecap ballast went on sunday morn i put my hamilton hood(2 175 halides, 2 no fluor.) on my 75g tank thinking it was the same amountof light. My question for you lighting guru's is why does the tank look so much darker and all the corals are starting to turn brown and are reaching for the light? The bulbs on the icecap were 2 actinics and 2 aquasuns. The hamilton hood has 2 6500k metal halides and 2 40w no's.

[Scavenger]

I thought you said this was a light question?? That's some heavy stuff your asking.. OK j/k Wattage isn't the only factor you have to consider when lighting. There is lumins (basically amount of light) and the light temperature (or colour of light) Another thing is you just changed the light levels your corals are accustomed to so they are adjusting. These are only the few things that popped into my head when I read your post, but I'm sure you will get more help shortly. There's some really light headed people around here who should get you all fixed up.