looking for people that run/ran 250de halide over a nano...

[6Speed]

Just wanted to see how it worked out for you and what bulb/ballast combo you used. Also what height you mounted the light over the tank.

I am looking at a couple diff options:

250w de hqi with a magnetic ballast
250w de hqi with a electronic ballast

or just go with a 150w de with magnetic ballast.

My main goal is to grow SPS. The size of the tank is 20 gallon display 17x17x17 with roughly 5 gallons in sump.

[cody6766]

I ran a 250w radium over a 30g cube and it worked fine. It got a little hot, but a fan in the sump fixed that. I used a PFO mag ballast. I have a 150w phoenix on my 34g Solana and have no heat issues or problems with SPS growth. Its running on an electronic ballast.

I would use a 150 for your tank. It will be plenty of light and you won't have to wrestle with heat.

[kevantheman35]

I have a 250w DE over my Solana 20x20x20 with an icecap ballast and a 14k pheonix bulb. The 150w wasn't cutting it for sps sp I upgraded about a month ago. I have the fixture about 13" off of the water right now and am in the process of adding cree led's for actinics. I have no heat issues and no chiller.

[neuro]

Wow, this is great information. I was planning to use my 250w 14k phoenix on my new 30 gal and was worried about the heat.

[6Speed]

Part of my thinking was that if I use an electronic ballast it will underdrive the bulb a bit so it won't be as intense, but it will still be more powerful than a 150w. Also I love the blue look so with a 20k bulb and an E ballast it will be plenty blue...or should be, hopefully. :)

[JAustin]

I run a 24" giesemann Neptune 250 hqi over a 29g Biocube. Im thinking about getting a 40g breeder and running two 250 w halides over it. I use Phoenix bulbs driven by mag ballasts to spec. Heat is no issue with a fan blowing over the tank or sump. My 150 just wasn't enough light and I had some Sps brown out. Since the addition of the 250w the Sps that were brown now have color.

[6Speed]

Cool! That 24" giesmann 250hqi has t5's in it, too? So you're actually getting more light than just a single 250w bulb!

How high is it mounted over tank?

[JAustin]

Yeah it has two t-5 along with the halide. It's 6-7 inches off the water now.