Watage to gallons?

J

jrthomas40

Guest
oh i havent heard of that place.....those are look like some pretty nice lights i think that reflector would help intensify the light so it will help a lot..
 
f1998

f1998

Member
Yah, its bright but the extra watts will help alot. I will have the best one they have cuz the next light up was the same thing Im doing but in 1 light fixture. 4 blues and 4 t5s
Hopefully it gets the job done. Im hopeing I can get hard corals as well cuz I know both Anonomes and Hard Corals require Strong Lighting.
I guess what I have now is rated medium lighting, is that correct.
 
J

jrthomas40

Guest
i would say it was border line because really you dont even have 3 watts per gallon with the one strip...the second strip will give you just over 5 watts/gallon almost 6...
 
f1998

f1998

Member
Yep, I sure have. The guy on that thread said my light was good enough.
But never thought of taking the 54 x 4 and it equalling under 3 watts per gallon. Should have read the book that I have because it says to get 3 - 4 watts per gallon for most stuff. 5 - 7 watts for keeping anything in the tank (all corals and invertabrates.)
 
J

jrthomas40

Guest
well that makes since...i hope those lights work out for you
 
f1998

f1998

Member
Ok, I went to the store and the sales clerk told me that its not my light because he sells these all the time to customers that have a 75g and they always come in and buy stuff and they dont come back with a problem. He told me to bring in my water and light, to compare to his light that is the same thing, to make sure that I didn't buy a bad one. I brought in my light and water and he tested it. The water came out perfectly fine and so did the light. Hes using the same light on a 95g tank and he has anonomes in there but the anonomes arnt in there long enough (4 weeks +). He told me to get a RO unit and try that cuz it sounds like there could be chemicals in the water that our making them die. I told him that everytime I put in clownfish that only 2 of them live out of the four. They always have the same disease and die. He told me that a RO unit will help in the long run and to get that instead of a light. I went ahead and bought a RO unit and changed about 10 gallons of water today. Hopefully this fixes the problem because Im having a bad red algae problem. (RO unit is suppose to help with this anyway)
Tell me what u think? I'm so confused!
 
J

jrthomas40

Guest
how much was the RO unit???....because i thought it might be my lighting as well when my anemone, bubble coral, and now trumpets died....and i use water conditioner PRIME that is suppose to remove all those chemicals in the water....and when i first put ocellaris in my tank i bought a pair they lived about 3 days got ick then died...bought another pair they lasted about a week got ick and died....but all my other fish were ok...then i went to ***** got two maroons and they have been in there fine ever since
 
dskrezyna

dskrezyna

Member
Do all of you who use VHO or MH lighting notice a large increase in your electricity bills? Between running a sump (pump, skimmer), powerheads, and lighting (with or without fans), its starting to scare me at how much a lighting bill can be! :scared:
 
J

jrthomas40

Guest
i hadnt had that much of an increase
but i am sure that will change when i get the second strip and start pushin almost 500 watts of lights :scared:
 
f1998

f1998

Member
Today, I bought another Nova Extreme light, so now Im pushin 432 watts, hopefully he likes that. The RO unit was 199.00. I will tell u this. It makes 1 gallon of clean water to 3 gallons waste. It takes 24 hrs to make 50 gallons. Its a Pure-Flo II with Reverse Osmosis. It has 3 canisters.
Do u think I need a powerhead for my aquarium. Im using a 550 GPH pump with a 2 way plastic tube so its pushin 275 per Tube for my 75 gallon or am I fine with what I got for Corals and Anenomes?
 
J

jrthomas40

Guest
i am using a mag 5 i just hooked up to my 90 and i have a dual nozzle return as well and i was told that would not be enough flow so i will have to come up with some plumbing to more circulation in the tank
 
f1998

f1998

Member
I ended up buying 2 max-jet 600s (160gph) powerheads and 2 Hydor FLO Rotating Deflectors (add-on to make current go 360 degrees (kind of like a wave maker). Im going to have a powerhead on boths sides and then add the Hydor FLO rotating Deflector to each powerhead. I should now have 820 gph making it turnover 11 times. Im thinkin this should be enough.
 
J

jrthomas40

Guest
i would think turn over 11 times per hour would be good circulation
 
f1998

f1998

Member
I was told to take GPH and divide it by your tank size and it will tell u the turnover rate. Dont know if that is right but a guy at ***** has a reef tank and said to get about a powerhead that runs at 210-230 gph and I decided to get 2 small powerheads to give me better circulation. I ordered some Reef Crystals Salt, was told that it is much better salt for reef systems. Enhanced Vitamins, Calcium and some other stuff
 
J

jrthomas40

Guest
there is a great post on here called "looking for powerheads" and it talks about the gallons per hour and the turn over and what is good for sps corals and all....help me figure for good rotation in my tank that i need about 3600/hour that is a 40 time turn over which i think may be a little to much but i will get to at least 15 or 20 maybe a little more...had to account for head loss and right now i am only at 310/hr with the mag 5 pushing up to 4 foot
 
f1998

f1998

Member
After getting the powerheads and the flos added + another light my anenome has opened up and is looking healthier. My parents bought my Powerheads and the flos to put in there regular tank because they like the way it looks. I went ahead and bought 3 Maxi-Jet 900s (230 gph powerheads) and three flos to put on the ends of the powerheads. I have a total of 1190 gph and 432 watts in lights. This will give me a turnover rate of 15.8x. This should give me just the right airflow for SPS corals. The lights our hooked up to a timer so the blues come on 1 hr before the regular light (13 hrs total) and the regular lights come on 1 hr after the blues(12 hrs total) and then the moon lights come on 11 hrs total when all the lights our off. Also red algae is now disappearing a little bit because of the RO water and the powerheads with the flos.
You should get some flos on your powerheads because it makes a huge difference in circulation. 360 degrees of circulation. It also puts air throught the tank. Put one power head on the left back side and another powerhead on the right back side facing towards the middle of the tank so it circulates throught the tank.
 
J

jrthomas40

Guest
what are flo's?? i havent heard of those....this morning i thought about getting one of those mag drive 3600 and spliting it 3 ways one out of the regular return, one out of the middle and one out of the right side since a mag drive 36 puts out 3200 gph at 4 foot so that would be a 35x turn over or a mag 24 that puts out 2000 gph at 4 foot and is a 22x turnover...i am partial to the 24 cuz it wont take 380 watts to run the pump only 265watts..
 
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