SeaFish Posted April 9, 2003 Share Posted April 9, 2003 i am thinking about putting a 150 or 250 watt iwasaki metal halide with E ballast on my 20 gallon reef tank. i am doing this mainly because i want to keep everything from sps to lps and not have to worry about if its healthy. i currently have a corcea clam in my tank so it will benefit from it as well. is this a good idea? if it is, how high must the lighting system be to prevent over heating of tank? also, would a 150 be better or a 250 for my tank? oh by the way, Dave ESP, thanks for telling me to add Mg to my tank. it really boost the Ca level. thanks. (this from months back). Link to comment
Lebowski Posted April 9, 2003 Share Posted April 9, 2003 First off, what lighting do you have in your tank now? A crocea requires some intense lighting. Also, just buying mh won't make you worry free about your coral being healthy, you need proper ca levels, alk., ph, nit. etc. Anyways, I'd think a good foot or more would be good to keep it away. a 150 watt mh would be awesome on the tank, with 250, you are basically wasting money, since it wouldn't benefit on that size tank really. a 150 would be good. Link to comment
reefan Posted April 9, 2003 Share Posted April 9, 2003 Yeah I would say 250w is a waist of money on a 20. I would use that $$$ for another project. JJ Link to comment
SeaFish Posted April 9, 2003 Author Share Posted April 9, 2003 thank you all for the quick reply. i currently have 144 watts of pc lighting. my Ca = 450ppm alk= 10.0 Mg= 1460 ph=8.2 but 8.6 right before lights out. ammonia, nitrate ad nirtate are all within the normal range. my other questoin is there a big difference between 144 watt of pc lighting and 150 watt of metal halide?????? Link to comment
Lebowski Posted April 9, 2003 Share Posted April 9, 2003 A big difference, first off, it's not really the wattage that counts much. It's the intensity of the bulb. Mh's lighting is very intense, if you buy a good bulb in the right spectrum ( i'd probably run a hqi ballast with an iwasaki 6,500k) then it can be much much more intense than just pc lighting. I am planning on buying mh as well, and just running mh since I can't fit anythng with it, unless I build a canopy for the mh and my pc. Link to comment
BigRog Posted April 10, 2003 Share Posted April 10, 2003 I also am in the process of building a new tank. I have built a new hood and am installing 1X175 watt 10k MH, 1X36 Atinic PC and 1 LCD moonlight. I have build in 2 fans to cool it down. The MH is sitting about 8 inches from the top of the water. The hood should be finished by the middle of next week. 7 coats of Polyurethane for protection. Link to comment
kennerd Posted April 10, 2003 Share Posted April 10, 2003 Originally posted by Lebowski I am planning on buying mh as well, and just running mh since I can't fit anythng with it, unless I build a canopy for the mh and my pc. Lebowski, what kind of canopy do you have right now? Link to comment
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