150w MH over a 20l enough?

[Purple Haze]

Anyone running a single 150w MH over a 20 long without any other light supplementation? I was thinking I could keep just about anything near the center of the tank and less light-loving creatures towards the outside of the tank. My only concern is the outsides of the tank would look too dark compared to the center.

 

Anyone run something like this?

Thanks!

[pyrrhus]

they say one MH is good for 2' square so you should be fine it would give you about 3" on each side of your tank that are low light.

[onthefly]

Jdsabin and krispy's tanks both have 150W pendants

[brahm]

150w Is plenty. Just put your most demanding corals in the center.

[MrKrispy]

i gotta 250W PFo over my tank. Go with that, same price. I want clams, sps, mo mo mo.

 

Thanx to wetworx and von digs

[bobioden]

Originally posted by onthefly

Jdsabin and krispy's tanks both have 150W pendants

 

 

 

Jdsabin has 2-175w bell shaped pendants over his 20L. The 20L is 30" long, they say one MH for each 24". I think you would be fine, just use the sides for lover light corals... ie.. mushrooms, zoos, etc...

 

 

Bob

[Purple Haze]

thanks for the insight.

[Aiptasia]

Should be fine with a 10,000k bulb and mid to top water corals. One problem i'd check is make sure the inverts in the center don't become burned or bleached by the extra intensity. I would acclimate the corals when first introduced by placing them on the left/right sides on the substrate, then after ten days or so of looking healthy, moving them closer to where you want them.

 

But, you should be fine.

[corey0613]

since it is 150W im assuming that you are using HQI (DE) bulb? also what color temp so you plan on using? personally i would steer clear of the bell shaped pendants. they are cheaper, but you dont get the light directed into the tank like the pendants with a quality reflector.

 

if you are not going to have any actinic supplementation you will want to get your corals exposed to some portion of the blue spectrum that is ever so important to them. a 20K bulb would work good, but then you will lose some PAR compared to the 10K.

 

in short i would go with a 250W lamp/ballast. this will allow you options as far as bulb temp goes without compromising coral health, they are about the same price, and you wont have to worry about upgrading the lighting.

 

what type/brand of pendants are you looking @?

[Purple Haze]

MrKrispy. Where did you get your 250 pfo and what did it set you back?

 

corey. Haven't narrowed down what pendants i'd be interested in. Any opinions? Defninately not interested in the bell pendants. And yes, de bulbs. @20k was what i was thinking.

[MrKrispy]

i got the pendant and quick connect and Icecap ballast from MarineDepot. com. I believe it set be back about $200. Another $70 for the bulb. Worth every single penny, people aren't kidding when they say they wished they would have went for MH from the beginning, myself included.

[Undertheradar]

wetworx here...

get the 250wattDE. The ballast actually costs less than the 150watt, and bulbs are the same $$. You can put a 20,000K bulb in there and forget about needing extra actinic. For a tank this wide, you can just raise the fixture up some...like 10"...not like the tank will suffer since it's so shallow...but then your light will be more even all over (not to mention less heat to deal with).

 

Marine Depot and premium aquatics are the places to go. I prefer the 'new' icecap 250watt e-ballasts...fire HQI bulbs better than ever ($115). The PFO fixture is about $93. And bulbs vary from $60-99.