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S_Stoney_S
09/23/2007, 04:40 PM
New to the hobby so i'm after some lighting advice. A local pet store was closing down, had mh set-ups for £5 each. Ballast included within the lighting rig, whilst these were designed for vivariums or something i thought that with a bulb change they would be ideal for my month old 50g tank. Currently running 3x40w tubes.

Im looking to run a reef tank and im currently stocking a couple of black clowns a royal gamma and a leather coral (i think) allong with a few button polyp hitchikers.

What rating bulbs should I buy, I have room to run 2 rigs above the tank and they are rated at 250w. Would obviously still need to run the blue flouresants allong side these?

Cheers

DrBegalke
09/23/2007, 06:30 PM
two 250W MH's over a 50 g with some leathers and polyps is over kill, IMO.

snulma1
09/23/2007, 08:32 PM
I would move the leathers and polyps as low as I could in the tank, and slowly increase the photoperiod.

As for Kelvin rating on the bulb, I would go from 14000K to 20000K, so that way if you like the coloration you are getting, then you don't have to run the actinics.

tripinpn01
09/23/2007, 10:19 PM
2 250w MH would be fine fine your tank. just make sure you know the placement of your corals and do not place your lighting too close. they would be overkill if you spent alot of money on them but since you got them cheap, they are usable.

nlmotoring
09/23/2007, 11:38 PM
I have been running 2 150W MH over a 90 gallon Tall tank and I can even grow corals on the sand bed. 250 sounds like a lot.

S_Stoney_S
09/24/2007, 11:54 AM
Thanks for the advice.

I've been into hydroponics in a big way for 2-3 years so i appreciate the need for spacing things away from the MH and just how much damage they can do. Will look in to getting 14k bulbs for them and I will suspend them on adjustable coils above the tank.

Just never hang arround if the MH bulb bursts while hot ---> tempory/permament madness from heavy metal poisoning. Doesnt sound like too much fun to me :p

papagimp
09/24/2007, 11:58 AM
I've got 14,000k 2 x 250 on my 75g, the coloring is very nice. Hamilton bulbs btw. I recently had a 250 20,000k on one side of my 55g (temp lights were setup during a tank move) and this was far too much for the leathers and softies i had in there. Even several specimens on the sandbed (4") were hating it. course this was a fixture sitting way to close to the surface for my taste. The halides on my 75g are about 10" up from the surface and the same species in that tank love it.

reefkrazy
09/24/2007, 12:33 PM
I would go with the 14k's! you cant beat the color and growth of them.