Too much light??? Nah!!!

[Reefstick]

I am tired of looking at my 30G under PC's. 96W just isn't enough for me.
So I am thinking about putting one of my 175W MH 15K units over the tank. However, it may be too much light.... don't know yet.
The question is, do you all think I could use only the MH over the tank and put the PC's away? I have skills with wood working and can build a hood to house the MH and mount it high above the tank, but not enough room for the PC's.
Since the 175G died (leak) the corals lots alot of color... I want it back and this is realy the only think that has changed from that setup.

Let me know if I am dreaming to big.

30G with 175W 15K MH!!!!!! oh yeah :bugout:

 

[BigAl07]

You know if yo do the overly simplified calacuation of watts per gallon it's still just on the marginal side. But we ALL know that calcuation is way outdated and totally useless here.

That would normally be a LOT of light for that sized tank and if you were simply upgrading an existing tank with corals that are acclimated to PCs that would take a serious acclimation process. I'm curious as to what problems that much light in the 30g would create (heat, bleaching etc). Would be VERY bright for sure!!

Allen

 

[Reefstick]

You know if yo do the overly simplified calacuation of watts per gallon it's still just on the marginal side. But we ALL know that calcuation is way outdated and totally useless here.

That would normally be a LOT of light for that sized tank and if you were simply upgrading an existing tank with corals that are acclimated to PCs that would take a serious acclimation process. I'm curious as to what problems that much light in the 30g would create (heat, bleaching etc). Would be VERY bright for sure!!

Allen

I was thinking mount the light around 2-3 feet above the tank, an lit for 2 hours the first day and an extra half hour everyday untill I get it back to full durration.... I did this with the 75G (VHO's to MH & VHO's :snshne: ) it seemed to work out, no bleaching anyways. It killed the Xina I had though. (Too much for the little guys pluss those lil' xina eating snails.)

For the heat, I do still have all my PC fans from the 75G but then again we are dealing with a 30G now, and being that it is a total of 60G counting the Refug it might be to hot. I just don't realy know what is going to happen.... I gues it would be nice to find out, I will be the gini-pig.

The corals in the 30 gallon are all medium and low light corals.

Do they make coral sunglasses?? LOL :whstlr:

Do you think having only MH is going to be an issue? I have never tried it, but being that the buld is a 15K I figured it would be just fine with out Act's.
Plus the bulbs I have take about 10 min just to get to full fire.

All these questions, and I thought I knew something about corals... HA! :away:

 

[vdituri]

Maybe go higher above the tank to let some of the light diffuse?
Just a thought.

MORE POWER!

 

[fidojoe]

A few years ago I set up a 29g with a 250w DE that was on a mag ballast, so it ran at 290w. It was an XM XDE 20k bulb, and it was the only light over the tank. While it looked really nice, it was entirely too much. I have a friend that put a 150w DE over the same tank (sold him the stand and glass after I gave up on it) and it turned out very nicely for him. A 150w DE is about as intense as a 250w SE bulb, so a 175w SE bulb should do well for you. If that will be your only light source, then I suggest something between 15 and 20k, depending on how much blue you like.

Another option, depending on dimensions of the tank, you could get some T5's. I still love mine after a year.

 

[Reefstick]

A few years ago I set up a 29g with a 250w DE that was on a mag ballast, so it ran at 290w. It was an XM XDE 20k bulb, and it was the only light over the tank. While it looked really nice, it was entirely too much. I have a friend that put a 150w DE over the same tank (sold him the stand and glass after I gave up on it) and it turned out very nicely for him. A 150w DE is about as intense as a 250w SE bulb, so a 175w SE bulb should do well for you. If that will be your only light source, then I suggest something between 15 and 20k, depending on how much blue you like.

Another option, depending on dimensions of the tank, you could get some T5's. I still love mine after a year.

FIdojoe,

Good stuff!!!

I am going to try the 175W SE for 4-5 months and see what the results are and I will take some pic's over time and show-case them for you guys.
one before the switch, one right after and then one in a few months.

BTW about how far off the tank was the MH?

Thanks for all the good info.

 

[mps9506]

I ran 2x250's over my 40 breeder in a PFO parallel reflector. So in short, I don't think that's too much light However my tank was really devoted to shallow water SPS and had very few LPS (I did end up getting a favid brain I couldn't pass up and it did well).
FWIW the PFO reflectors are among the best in the industry when it comes to maximizing light output from halides, so this tank was getting a ton of light.

But like everyone says, your main concerns would be acclimating your corals to the light, heat and evaporation. The most difficult to address is heat and evaporation. My 40 gallon (it did have a 30 gallon sump) evaporated between 3-4 gallons a day, which is quite a bit of water volume for such a small tank.
Make sure you can account for this