400 watt mh too much for 24 gal.?

[jshuste]

i have a 24 gal. with a 150 watt 14k mh. i put acros in there from my lfs and they fade in color. They keep theirs in a 55 gal. tank with two 400 watt mh. i want to put a 400 watt mh on my tank to help keep their color. would it help or is the color fading due to something else, meaning i have sufficient light, or should i get a new buld at 10k?

[McCrary]

What are your water parameters? High concentrations of both phosphate and nitrate can cause the fading of acropora.

[hahnmeister]

OR, low calcium or alkalinity... those will brown out a coral real quick.

[jshuste]

both nitrates and phosphates are 0. Alk and Calcium are both normal.

[hahnmeister]

Okay, then I think you might be overexposing the corals. its hard to know for sure, because it takes some time to develop. I have one tank with what I believe is the same thing right now.

What kinds of corals?

How many hours per day?

Do you skim?

How long has the tank been set up?

How much LR?

How many fish?

Also, give me all the specs on the lights.. ballast, bulb, reflectors... etc...

[poissonist]

yes be carefull to overexposition. 4OO WATTS BURN!!!
I EXPERIMENTED 1000 WATTS ON A SURFACE OF 1:4M2 RESULT WAS INCREDIBLE; COLORS OF CORALS ETCETC BUT BILL WAS INCREDIBLE ALSO!!! UNLESS IT WOULD BE A FACTORY OR SPECIAL CONTRACT WITH POWER PLANT HAHAHAH
AND I COULD NOT AFFORD AT THAT TIME THE CLIMATISATION WHICH WAS COMPLETLY CRAZY ALSO AND AGAIN ELECTRICITY BILL MULTIPLIED!!!! HOW TO GET CRAZY IN ONE LESSON!!!

[justinm0424]

I have a 400 MH on my 36gal. Well it's a 450W ballast. I love how bright it is. It lights up like crazy. If i were you I'd go with a 250w instead just bc of extra power and heat.

[JamesJR]

I agree with justin. 400 would probably be major overkill and 250 would be the highest I would go. You would have to keep the water quality immaculate or you would have some real algae troubles.

[waterman78]

jshuste: I have an identical if not same lighting set up as yours over my 24 gallon nano cube. However, I have had success with my sps corals. I own 3-montipora caps and a blueish/purple tip acro...along with two clams and other lps corals which all seem healthy and growing. There were a few things that I failed to do during my earlier days when I purchased about $300 in acros. I failed to dose strontium...iodine...magnesium...and even boron in that case to my tank. I found that these elements were being removed from the water column and never replenished.

Here are the changes I made to my tank without changing the lighting:
Add a 5.5 gallon sump converted into a refugium w/ chaetomorpha, 3" of live sand, and 2 - light bulbs from melev's website...
Add a phosphate reactor - KENT Marine's 150 phos.reactor...
Add a 1/10hp JBJ chiller for stable temperature control...
And I also used the drip and photo-acclimation methods. (drip water from tank into bag of coral for about an hour; place corals at the bottom of tank to adapt to the water and lighting conditions for about a few days and slowly place in its final position for proper acclimation).
And lastly, I added more waterflow in the display to help with the coral requirements...medium to highflow is highly recommended.

GOOD LUCK with your tank and have fun REEFIN'.

[jshuste]

I'm not adding iodine, magnesium or strontium, maybe i should, hopefully that will get my colors to come back, thanks for all the advise.

[waterman78]

Well, Salifert's Iodine contains Iodate which is the most comment used form of iodine...IMO. I tried Lugol's solution and I heard strange things about the product so I changed to Salifert. My personal perference. Turbo Strontium has been an awesome addition to my tank...and I haven't decided on the best Magnesium brand...however, I am currently using Kent Marine's Tech-M supplement. I use kalkwasser mix and Salifert's Boron to help stabilize and support my pH and calcium levels.

Larry