Lighting on a 55G

[bigdjp]

Right now I'm running 2 110w VHO's and 2 40w NO's. I just put together 2 ballasts for MH lights. Is 2 250w 10K MH's and 2 110w Actinics to much for a 55g? If I cut back to only 1 MH and 2 VHO's then I don't think I'll get the full effect of the lighting throughout the whole tank. Any suggestions would be helpful. My bulbs should be arriving sometime tomorrow and I want to have most of the lighting hooked up in the canopy so when the lights go off tomorrow night I can just switch out the canopies.
Thanks

 

[zemuro114]

that is alot of heat... Maybe 2 MH 175watt and 2 54 watt would do ok... that is over 700 watts that you have now, that would fry many things.. You would need a vry efficient chiller... not to mention it would be running 20 hours a day.. I would skimp down a lot.. 400 watts max on a 55 i would say....(around there)

 

[ivanfj]

I am doubtful that you can run 175w MH with the two ballasts.
I would just start up with 1-250w MH and the 2-110w actinic. It gives your tank and your fish to adjust to the new lighting and also I would slowly acclimate them to the new lighting by starting to have the lights on for only a few hrs and slowly adds up.
You could also try different kelvin of bulbs. I believe 14000k and 20000k bulbs does put out some blue-ish color and that's all VHO actinics bulbs do. If you go with 2-250 MH 14000k bulb, you could consider taking one of the 110w actinic out. If you go with 2-250 MH 20000k bulbs, you could just throw your VHO actinics away because the 20k bulbs would provide enough blue-ish color to your tank. Both ways you could still have the power of MH and the blue coloration of the actinics without having to deal with high wattage.

 

[nas19320]

I run 2x175w MH with 2x54 T5 supplementation on a 55, no problem. You could run 2x250w MH on a 55, many people do it, you will just need a way tog et rid of the heat. You'll definetly want to run 2 MH's to get proper coverage.

 

[bigdjp]

I've been told I should be fine from the LFS but just wanted some feed back from those of you here. As far as the heat I have 5 100 cfm fans running.
thanks for the feed back.

 

[effloresce]

iv got 2 250w MH's and 2 actinics VHOs.

 

[bigdjp]

Originally posted by Effloresce
iv got 2 250w MH's and 2 actinics VHOs.

Are you running a bunch of fans? If so how many?

 

[effloresce]

i have 2 4.5in fan only while my MH's are on, sometimes i dotn even run them, mine are factory fans and are loud (but what evey gets the job done ya know!)