Too much power?

woolfolkd

woolfolkd

Member
I currently have 430 watts of vho on my 110 gal. The bulb will be due for replacement soon and I am considering adding 2- 150 watt MH that would put me at about 6.63 watts per gallon. Is that overkill? Should I shoot for 6 watts a gal. I would like to add some hard corals and clams to my reef if I can. Thank you very much for any input.
P.S. I was thinking about 14,000 k on both. I have never had MH so I dont know what the different Kelvin ratings look like on a reef. I have heard the higher the better. But I have also heard that some k's will interact with others and look funny or cancel each other out or something. Thanks again!!
 
wwfstyle

wwfstyle

Member
I have 2 250 14k bulb on my display and I love thecolor. It is white with a small tint of blue. I heard that the lower the k the faster your stuff will grow, but the higher the k the slower and more blue to the tank. On my 75 I have 9.6 watts per gallon. I think you should be able to go to 250 if you really wanted to IMO.
 
msd2

msd2

Active Member

Originally posted by woolfolkd
I currently have 430 watts of vho on my 110 gal. The bulb will be due for replacement soon and I am considering adding 2- 150 watt MH that would put me at about 6.63 watts per gallon. Is that overkill? Should I shoot for 6 watts a gal. I would like to add some hard corals and clams to my reef if I can. Thank you very much for any input.
P.S. I was thinking about 14,000 k on both. I have never had MH so I dont know what the different Kelvin ratings look like on a reef. I have heard the higher the better. But I have also heard that some k's will interact with others and look funny or cancel each other out or something. Thanks again!!
on my 100 I have a 175 mh as part of the morning/dusk cycle and you probably would rather go with 250's, much brighter and wont get lost on your tank, literally when the 175 turns on in the morning before my 250's (main lighting) its not very bright. I personally like the xm 10k bulbs very white light. 14k w/your existing might be kinda blue for my personal taste. Plus 10k will give you some added growth for the corals. The only thing is the heat, mh get hot so watch tank temp.
 
golfish

golfish

Active Member

Originally posted by woolfolkd
I would like to add some hard corals and clams to my reef if I can. Thank you very much for any input.

I'd say that was weak lighting for clams. You'd be much better off going with 250 watters.
 
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dboy999

Guest
definetly need more light lets say this i have a 75g reef an i have 4 110w vho;s 48",an 2 250w halides 10k an corals clams so on growing like weeds you need alot more in gonna up grde too a 180 next monthe gonna add 2 more 250 halides an 2-4 mor vho's..so thats just my 2 cents..
 
woolfolkd

woolfolkd

Member
I was considering the 250's but figured 930 watts was a bit steep. I would like to go with as much power as possible without having adverse effects. Thanks for the help everybody!!
 
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thomas712

Guest
I have the 440VHO and 2 - 250watt MH 10,000k Ushio's over my 90 for a total of 940 watts or 10.444 watts per gallon. I love it when the halides kick on, but I'm not running mine as long as some folks do.
 
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thomas712

Guest
Got some hair algea, but not too bad, I leave the MH on for only a couple of hours per day.
 
wwfstyle

wwfstyle

Member
So Thomas can you go into more detail on the time for your lights pls. On my 75 I have 2 atinic VHO and 2 250 14k MH. My VHO turn on around 12 noon and off at 12 midnight. My MH come on around 2pm and off around 10pm. I dont have to much problem with algea but you think this time is ok?
 
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thomas712

Guest
The VHO is on seperate timers, one set goes on about 1:00pm or both go on at my discression, an hour later the other set goes on at 2:00 pm.
The MH go on at about 6pm to 8 pm then out. I have also tried 4pm to 6pm.
Then a set of VHO's goes out about 9:30 or 10:00pm and the other one I turn off personally when I go to bed.
I don't always follow this, I have had the lights for about a month+ now and am still playing with it. I am building things up slowly.
As for your lighting schedual, I don't know what you are keeping. Is it necessary to keep your MH on for 8 hours? You decide. Keeping clams, arcos? lots of stonies? I'm not. So far my BTA's have not run for cover because of the MH's, and this is one of the reasons that I am not going for 8 hours just yet on the MH's.
If your tank is responding well with what you are doing then leave things alone. But like I said, depends on what you are keeping.
Thomas
 
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dboy999

Guest
ive bin running my 4 110w vho's an my 2 250 10k mh for 8 hrs. a day for about 3 months now great result..just my 2 cents
 
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