70w mh in a bc29

[cromag08]

Hi I'm looking to retro a 70w hqi in my coralife biocube 29 hood. need some help on which fixture to get and how to do it.

[ReefWreak]

I would not recommend doing that. There's definitely an x-factor that we don't quite understand about metal halide bulbs that we can't easily replicate with other lighting methods, but with a 70w you'll likely get neither the colors of a metal halide bulb, nor the efficiency of LEDs.

70w is a wonky wattage that has never been popular. There are a few fixtures, but generally they put out too much heat to justify their low PAR and lack of bulb choices.

I did a little bit of searching (I'm on mobile) and found this which should help.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1884367

That being said, I just installed a full spectrum rapidled retrofit into my 29g cube and my corals have within 2 days significantly colored up (mostly acropora and a few lps). Also they run cool, fit in the hood, and we're pretty inexpensive all things considered. And they're fully customizable down the road and modular.

For a big tank, I would absolutely recommend 250-400w halides, but for a small tank, having been down the 70w road, 2 led kits on this 29g, and having had a full 250w x2 setup on a big tank, don't bother with halides on a nano.

[cromag08]

Good points. I use halides on my big tanks and didn't know there was a difference with the 70w bulbs.

[yamaha racer]

I had a 70w mh on a 3g back in the day. I didn't know what bulb it had but I loved the for it gave off. Although I eventually never added anything to the tank to know what it did to coral and it's color. I also have black sand in all my tanks so everything pops pretty good regardless of the light. I'd go with a 150w though in the 29g. As said above u have more bulb options. I have a 150w 14k pheonix for my 24g but still not blue enough.