Metal Halide Lighting

For your high demand reef aquarium, metal halide lighting may be the way to go for you. Metal halides provide the most intense lighting that is available today. This intensity is more important if your tank is deep. By deep I mean more that 16 inches. If you have sps corals or clams on your reef floor, you may benifit from this type of lighting.

They are available in many color temperatures ranging from 4000K to 20000K. K, known as Kelvin. Kelvin is the temperature reading used to rate the color of bulbs. 5500 degrees K is the equivalent of sunlight. Many people use a combination of florecent actinic bulbs as well as halides to obtain a blueish look for their tank.

Metal Halide fixtures are designed to either hang above the fish tank or be mounted in your aquarium hood. Because of the high intensity, these lights produce a lot of heat that needs to be dissipated. If mounted in a hood, they will require a minimum of 2 fans to circulate the air.

Metal halides will also create what is known as the "glitter" effect. On a natural reef in the ocean, wave action on the surface acts as a sort of lens for sunlight. This focuses the light on the reef and creates these glitter lines. This is very attractive indeed. So far metal halides are the only artificial light source that will do this.