How much is too much light?

[etricas]

I'm currently running 260W of power compacts over my 90 gallon which is 24.5 in high. I'm considering upgrading to a Metal Halide fixture with two 250 watt bulbs plus 260 watts of PC's for a total of 760 watts. Is this too much light? I currently have a few polyp colonies, a devils hand and a green tree coral (the latter two I've only had a few days). I want to have the capability of keeping whatever coral I choose but I don't want too much light on the soft corals if it will be a problem for them. Any input from the pro's in here would be greatly appreciated.

 

[grubsnaek]

well your lighting is bright. 9w/g is where the max should be,and your at 8.4w/g. so yes you can have pritty much any coral that you want. just keep in mind that with this amount of lighting that placement will be key.
and just think how sick your fish, coral, live rock, etc, are going to look. please post pics when ready.

 

[etricas]

I just don't want to overdo it. So the maximum recommended amount of light is 9 watts per gallon?

 

[etricas]

Oh and does anyone have any idea what it adds per month to the electric bill running a 760 watt light fixture?

 

[emonemo]

so your telling me that runnig a 130w PC and a 175w MH is toooo much for my 20g.
Ive already got a bta, Pagoda Cup, tons of soft corals, and am looking to grw lots of zoas.
I heard that the more light the better, and now i hear that there is such thing as too much.....
what is it???

 

[jmesmcm]

IMHO it is hard to overdo it with lighting, I am running the same light setup on my 120 that I was running on my 58 which is 2*400W 20K MH and 2*96w actinincs and the only issue in either case was heat. All teh corals seemsed to thrive with the light although I did place my sun polyps under a ledge to provide them some shade.

 

[emonemo]

wow thats alot of light. So your saying that proper aquascaping is also very important.
I have a pagoda rock. the flat kind with tons of polyps coming out. thats SPS, and those need most light. So i can have it higher and then have softies kinda under it. etc. this is all starting to come together in my head now.
thanks for the input

 

[reefforbrains]

going over 9 watts per gallon being bad...Rubbish...I think its a good benchmark for most hobbiests because going beyond is not cost effective for most applications. Having so much light is like someone trying to make you feel special and feeding you a 3foot tall stack of pancakes for breakfast. You can indeed probably eat quite a bit but really anything beyond a 6inch stack is just wasted energy. Friends with

[hr]
SPS tanks I have seen run 1200w over 20 gallon tanks without issues (aside from heat). But for most folks going that extreme is just a pissing contest. 760 over your 90g should be a great lighting set up for ya...IMO