5 Related Questions

[demosthenes]

I want to order some lights from <a href="http://www.hellolights.com" target="_blank">HelloLights.com</a>. I am planning on putting them on my 20 Gallon, and convert it to a Nano. I am adding 30 lbs of LR, 2 Hagen 402 PHs, an FBF up to 900G, a Ritteri Anemone with a pair or mated Tomato Clowns, and some SPS. Here are my questions:

• Should I go with a 4-Bulb VHO system, 440 W, or a 2-Bulb VHO system, 220 W?
• Should I use URI or AquaSun bulbs?
• If I order the 2-Bulb, should I go with 1 10K and one Super Actinic/Actinic '03, or 1 10K and 1 50/50?
  If I go with the 4-Bulb, should I get 2 10K, 1 Super Actinic/Actinic '03, and 1 50/50, or something else?
  Last of all, lights included, will my setup be alright?

 

[byrself]

it should work. use equal number of bulbs actinic with 10oooks. go with the most watts you can for the anemone, and keep excellent water quality. good luck.

 

[demosthenes]

Thanks, I've decided to get the 2-Bulb system. It will give me 11 W/g, and that's more than enough, and obviously 22 W/g is too much. Thanks

 

[the infamous sea cucumber]

Well if your planning a 20 gal, you wont be able to go with a 440 watt or 220 watt system of VHO's. I assume your tank is either 18" or 24" in lenght, if its 18" the max VHO watt bulb you can put over it is 40Watts. If it is 24", you can put a 75watt bulb up. I dont know if you've got a lot of room width wise in your hood but you might be able to hook up either 4x75 or 4x40. IMO you should just get one 175w high K MH for what your planning. It would save you money in the long run.

 

[glazer]

Demo,
Since you asked for opinions... I am with Mr. Cucumber there. I would go with a MH as well in the 10 to 20K range. No such thing really as too much light, IMO... but you can indeed have too much of the WRONG kind of light.
I would also beyond a doubt skip the FBF. It just simply is not needed on that setup. They work great and respond to any ammo spikes faster than any other bio filtration there is but they can and do crash, quickly in fact. Loss of power or just shutting it off for tank maintenance if only for a short time can quickly start killing off the aerobic bacteria. On a such a small tank this IS NOT a good thing. There is prolly those, no I am sure there are those that will disagree with me but IMO these filters should only be used on far far larger tanks.
With 30 lbs of live rock and some good live sand your bio filtration should be more than adequate, this coupled with small frequent water changes and you should do great.
Have fun, small tanks rock! hehe
P.S. I have a 7.5 nano going strong for a year now and use no skimmer or filtration at all other than the live rock and sand.

 

[byrself]

i was wondering how you were going to use 48" vhos on a 20g?

 

[the infamous sea cucumber]

The hellolights.com site does not do a good job informing you that 110w lamps only come in a 48" size. There retrofit descriptions make it easy to think that you can slip 440 watts under any size hood, which is just not the case:here is a table to help:
Size Std VHO
18" 15 40
24" 20 75
36" 30 95
48" 40 110
60" n/a 140
72" 55 160

 

[blondenaso1]

If its a 20 long I think it is 36" long?, but I'm not sure. I have a 20 short and it is 24". For lighting on mine I am using one 175 12000K MH, one 20watt actinic, and one 20watt 50/50. Everything is doing great so far and I have no heat problems. Go with MH they are perfect for that size tank IMO.

 

[byrself]

a 20g long is 30 inches long.

 

[mini-reefer]

I agree with using the metal halide. One ballast, one bulb (10000k or 12000K) and a spider reflector would be amazing over a 20 gallon. Then you could mount 2-40 or 75 watt actinics and the halide in the one reflector. The only catch to that is you would need lamp clips to hold the NO or VHO because the reflector wouldnt be long enough to mount the regular ends. With that said the german three piece end caps would work great. Just MHO.

 

[demosthenes]

Well, good thing I found that out. I hadn't noticed that, I would have ordered the lights, and been really mad at myself when I got them. Well, I'm going with a 175 W 10K MH w/ 2 20 W Super Actinics. Thanks for the help.