[AquaFilly]

Hey!

I have a 24" CSL hood with 2 65w lights on my 15g now. I would really like to stick the same hood on a 29g which is 30" long. I also want to stick an HQI bulb in there like some people are doing on nano-reef.com. I'm worried that a 150 watter would be a little too warm though and may burst my compacts.

I plan to keep a ton of zoanthids. Only other corals would be GSP, a xenia, ricordia, some shrooms, and a few other easy softies. So my question is, will I have any lighting worries if I put these corals under a 70w halide?

Thanks!

 

[E-quality]

Why not just go with the 150 alone? That would be perfectly fine. Besides, it would be hard to fit a MH and PC fixture over it, and it wouldn't look right either....

 

[scleractinian]

Ya mean somthin' like this: http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=24893&highlight=halide+moon+ballast+fan

Looks like you could do it for about $140: http://home.earthlink.net/~reefcanopy/id12.html

Seems like the way to go to me. A 70'd probably be perfect. That, or go with the 150 pendant like 75GRO suggested. I love mine, and have never thought that I needed supplemental PC's or fluoros.

 

[AquaFilly]

Yeah exactly like KrackerG's setup.
I figure I might as well just upgrade this setup since I've already spent the money on it. I can't afford to sell this and buy a new fixture. Plus it'd cost $95 for a kit without the bulb from a guy on nano-reef.com. Then I can buy a $40 bulb for it from Catalina. Just gotta find the link...

I forgot about his 30" CSL setup. It's the same bulbs as my 24" CSL, but a little longer and with 2 70w HQIs. I'm not sure if a 150w might be too much light for softies. I guess I'll try out 1 70w and if growth seems too slow or I don't like the shadows, I'll just buy another 70w.

Thanks for the help!

 

[007]

IMO a 70w MH is not worth the money . . . its just not intense enough to really be all that effective, especially on a 30 gallon tank. I would go with a 150w and just raise it to prevent burn and overheating. 70's just are not worth it.

 

[AquaFilly]

Really?

I read somewhere that double ended bulbs where twice as powerful as single ended bulbs. So the 70w HQI should be like a 140w single end. Is this true? Are they really any more powerful than single ended bulbs? I know they don't wear out as fast and I think they use less electicity, but other than that, what is the benefit? Perhaps I should post this question in another post?

 

[007]

generally yeah, they are more efficient. They last longer, are brighter, and more energy efficient.

BUT anything less than the 150 watters and you are losing basically all the benefit of using DE bulbs. A 70 watt bulb just doesnt have the intensity needed to be effective on a marine tank. Its like putting a 60w incandescent over your tank. It just doesnt have the wattage to really put out traditional "MH" intensity.

 

[007]

Plus, a 150w DE MH costs like what $10-20 more than 70?

Go with the 150's . . . . you'll be much happier.

 

[AquaFilly]

A 150w would be squeezed in right next to my power compacts. Do you think I need to worry about the heat shattering them? I'll have 2 fans, one on each side, but it'll still be a little crowded. Also, should I worry about a 150w melting any of my softies? I'm going to build a sps tank in a couple years, so I'm not going to need to upgrade this tank. Softies only for me.

How do you know if a light is too strong/too weak for a certain coral other than trying it out and seeing if the coral flourishes? Would a lux meter ($60-70 I think) be a good investment? How much/many lux do softies like? How many is too much and how many is too little?

 

[E-quality]

A 70w DE gives out as much light as a 15w SE and a 150w DE gives out as much light as a 250w DE, roughly.

You won't save too much money by going with the 70 as opposed to the 150. If it were me, I would get the 150 and sell the PC setup.

I just saw that you only want softies in this tank... Softies will do fine under the PC light that you have now. You"ll be able to keep whatever you want with the 150 MH.

 

[Newts]

A 150w light won't be too much light, you just have to aclimate your corals to the light, just like you would with any light. Soft corals do very well with intense light once aclimated, in fact they'll just grow faster. When I took down my 85g with PCs I moved some stuff to my 180g with 250w MHs and they loved it.

 

[scleractinian]

Actually, if you ignore reflectors, DE lamps usually make (at the lamp) slightly less light/watt than the equivalent SE lamp will, else equal. This is probably because they need to use some of the power to stay hot, because they don't have an outer envelope to insulate them.

DE lamp SYSTEMS (those with good reflectors) almost always DELIVER more light to the tank than a similar wattage SE system, because thier small size and lack of an outer envelope allows for a much more efficient reflector design that will fit in a small space.

A 70w DE with a flat reflector will probably make about as much light as a couple of the equivalent spectrum 55w PC's, but you'll get glitter lines, less heat than you would with more PC's (really, even though it's concentrated at one point), and will look very cool.

The 150 might be better, and really isn't much bigger, but is about $60 more expensive, and would be hotter.