30 inch Nova extreme over 29???

mopar9012

mopar9012

Active Member
Ive been looking at these and Ive been wondering why they only offer 4 24W bulbs for a 30inch fixture. Thats not even 100Watts.
Now Ive read something about T5 and you not needing as much wattage.
Would this be enough to support corals in a standard 29?
What kind of corals?
thanks
 
mkzimms

mkzimms

Member
depends what types of corals. for softies and most lps you will be fine but hard corals and clams will need more light. on my 40G breeder im running two 36" 4x39w T5HO units (total 8 bulbs 312w) and i still have to keep my sps within the top 8 inches of the tank.
 
nycbob

nycbob

Active Member
4x24 watts t5 over a 29 is enough as long as its got individual reflectors. u can even keep sps and clams if kept with 15-20 inches from light.
 
mopar9012

mopar9012

Active Member
Its a fixture that has the reflector inside.
I was thinking about some how mounting my current retro T5 bulbs on the side of the light, Ive seen this done before.
I dont want SPS, maybe a clam.
 
mkzimms

mkzimms

Member
a clam needs about the same light as most sps do. you will also need to treat your tank like its an sps tank to keep a clam in terms of calcium, alk and magnisium and quality.... at that point you might as well do sps.
 
mkzimms

mkzimms

Member
hah, i know the feeling. i went through hell looking for my current light setup and its still not exactly what im looking for. when it comes down to it, for the setup your looking to do the 4x24w should be fine, it will still be way better than PC. unfortunately because of the 30" width of your tank there aren't many options when it comes to high powered lighting unless your looking into MH which would pack a big punch into a small package. current makes the 30" sunpod with a 150w 14k MH for like $280. the 14k bulb would give you the blue spectrum you needed so you wouldn't necessarily need auxiliary actinics and would be able to keep pretty much anything you wanted. it also has 12 moon lights and an integrated timer i think.
 
mopar9012

mopar9012

Active Member
well Ive had PC at the beggining, wasnt enough.
then I did the 175W MH retro. WOW, Algea went crazy, sold that.
Now I have one T5 retro kit over it, I was suprise how nice and looks and seems to be pretty strong for just one retro kit.
I wanted to get away from my canopy and just have a fixture and I was looking something other than MH so I thought the nova extreme.
Its all basically up in the air, Ive considered the sunpod 150W version.
Ill be looking into a lot this next week
 
mkzimms

mkzimms

Member
how long did you have the MH on there for? usually when putting MH on an existing tank you get an algae bloom for a bit until everything comes back into balance. you could always throw some window screen folded in layers on there and unfold it over the course of a few weeks to bring everything up to the new lighting slowly staving off the algae bloom.
 
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