T5 to MH

[Tracey2]

Everyone else is going the other way but I really wanted to see my tank under mh lighting and I needed my T5's elsewhere so when I found a cheap homemade fixture I took it. The mh's are 175w 14k and they came with vho. I love the vho and couldn't believe the colour pop especially greens, way better colour than with my T5's but I find the mh's wash out the colour, especially reds.

First question, should I switch the 175 mh to a 10k or 20k or could it just be the make of 14k, are all 14k's the same?
2nd question, my corals are used to 4-80w T5's & 4 54W T5's, how long should I leave the mh's on to begin the switch to mh? I don't have the new fixture mounted yet, it is just sitting on my tank so I don't have the luxury of raising it higher yet.
3rd question, should I go back to my T5's with the addition of the vho's?

I do like the shimmer of the mh on my sand and feel I could probably keep more coral or even clams on the sand.

[RuGlu6]

Not all 14k's are the same.
Looks like Phoenix 14k is everyone's favorite.
Color is obviously your own preference.
Like always go slow with corals when changing any lighting, less light with gradual increase is the safe approach

[mark]

before you dump a bunch more into the MH, thought about LED?

[Tracey2]

Thanks for the help.

Big mistake made, somehow in trying to set my timers for shorter periods I set the mh's to come on at midnight, I was shocked to wakeup to lights on this morning, so my tank got 6hours of mh.

I wish I could try the phoenix bulbs before buying because I am really disappointed in the bulbs I have now, my flowerpot coral that is usually hot pink looks really dull under these bulbs.

Mark, I would love to do LED but they are too expensive, I thought I would play with T5's and MH's for a couple of years in hopes the LED's will drop in price.

[nlreefguy]

In my opinion, by the time you take into account your energy savings, there is nothing cheaper than a DIY LED fixture. Just my opinion.

[Tracey2]

You are probably right but I wanted to avoid the DIY thing. Someone suggested I try the ushio 10k bulb to make reds pop, would you all agree?

[parkinsn]

I have run the Ushio 10k on past tanks and they are very yellow, the Ushio 14k is much nicer. Not sure about popping red, but if you looking to pop the reds try to suppliment with fiji purple's. I have heard they pop red pretty good.