150w HQI over a 10g

[TonyMc]

The bulb seems to be a really great white color. Of course I only ran it for 1 hour tonight so we'll see what it looks like after burn in. I'm not sure what brand the light is. It's made in Tiawan and says "Macro AQ15010k" on the bulb if that means anything. I don't know what the innards of the ballast look like, but the casing is a nice anodized black with gold sides aluminum case. The pendant to ballast hookup is a quick disconnect and the pendant cord has a neat little retractable do-hickey that mounts to the ceiling.
We'll see how it fares in the long-run. At $150 for the whole setup I'm not expecting the holy grail of lights, but we'll see.

 

[Shoreliner11]

You might want to use the screen acclimation method. When I upgraded my 20gal from 130watts pc to a 250watt de hqi mh i used 3 layers of screen and slowly took all of them off over the course of a week and a half or so. It worked good for me but I did still notice a bit of fading in my coral for a couple weeks. The color came back but not sure what would happen without any acclimation. Light looks great!

 

[Macbeth417]

TonyMc:

Glad to see you are happy with your new light and keep us updated on the results.

-Erik

 

[BCT182]

Not to beat a dead horse but, I would have to agree with Erik (Macbeth417) about watts per gallon to an extent. I had 8 55watt power compact bulbs plus on 40 watt actinic on my 50 gallon. Thats 9.6 watts per gallon. The reason two compacts? I was explained that certain corals require a certain WPG by the LFS. Finally when I started to get advice from other sources I upgraded to halides. Two 175s and two 55 watt PC's. Thats 9.2 watts per gallon, almost exact, BUT what a difference in my corals within one week. Not to continue or restir an arguement. Its just dangerous to base on WPG becasue I ended up with 10WPG PC's which "I could do anything" with, and within a short time, dead acro's. Losts of money spent to just go out and buy halides.

 

[TonyMc]

Macbeth. I am very happy with it, but more important, my corals are happier. My Trumpet is fatter than ever, my Zoos are expandinding more than ever(can't wait to see their true colors come out). I can't wait for my Digi to color back up(hot pink).Even my shrooms, which are directly under, but at bottom of tank, are expanding more. I thought I might lose them because of the intensity, but nope their huge!!!
I will keep you guys updated as it comes along. I need a better camera though.

Shoreliner11. I thought about that as I read about other people doing it that way and it sounds like a good idea, but I just started acclimation by putting the light 16" off the surface and running the light for 4 hours then I dropped it to 15" and let the light go for 5 hours today... I'll do this until I reach 12"X8 hours. Do you think thats moving to fast? So far so good.

BCT182> I agree 100%. Although I made a big jump in WPG from my old light just the way the halide lights up the tank is a whole different experience. GOT TO LOVE THOSE GLITTER LINES

 

[Darrell Ward]

Looks good Tony. I'm going to be using a 250w HQI Ocean Light pendant an my upcoming 15g. high sps nano. Getting a 20k AB with it. It's going to be great!

 

[TonyMc]

Looks good Tony. I'm going to be using a 250w HQI Ocean Light pendant an my upcoming 15g. high sps nano. Getting a 20k AB with it. It's going to be great!

250W will be nice over a 15g. Theres a guy at RC and nano reef that goes by the name bobioden. He has a 250W over his 15g and the tank is absolutly awesome.
So far I'm noticing a color shift in my corals. My Monti cap is turning from a dark brick red to a bright brick red and now there is a color contrast between the skeleton and polyps. My monti digi when from hot pink when I bought it to brown with spots of bleaching under my PCs, but it's slowly turning pink again with alot more polyp extension. My zoos are starting to show the're true colors aswell. It's very cool to see this kind of color shift this quickly. Can't wait for a couple weeks to go by to see how it turns out.
The only problem so far is I get a smell during the day when the light is running. Almost like it's burning the oil slick off the surface although I have a surface skimmer on my overflow going to my sump. Also I'm getting a hard green algea on the glass. It has to scraped just like coraline.

 

[Darrell Ward]

I'm sure it will stablize with time. It takes a while for the tank to adjust to the high intense lighting. At least thats been my experience. Great lighting is not all you need for great corals, but it sure makes it easier. LOL!

 

[TonyMc]

Great lighting is not all you need for great corals, but it sure makes it easier. LOL!

Great point Darrell. Thats exactly why I'm holding off on introducing any more corals to the tank for a while. I had a heater stick on me killing 3 colonies of coral a fish and shrimp. I never found the fish so I suspect my peppermint ate what was left of it. I never got an ammonia spike, but my nitrates went high and I suspect that's where the hard green algea on the glass and substrate came from. When I installed the new light I got a ton of bubbles comming off the substrate and LR from the algea dying off. The substrate is turning white again and my nitrates have dropped and the bubbles have ceased. I got my Ca and Alk back in line after all the water changes I did messed it up from the heater disaster.

 

[Darrell Ward]

A small amount of a high quality carbon may help absorb some of the organics left in there.

 

[TonyMc]

A small amount of a high quality carbon may help absorb some of the organics left in there.

Yeah. I was thinking of tossing a bag in my overflow.

 

[NeilsReef]

I think a 150MH would work great on your tank.

 

[Skimmy]

i wish i was a uber math freak so i could come up with some sort of scientific formula that actually means something, like: depth x total area x lumens = habitat for coral "x", you'd have to know optimum photosynthesis conditions for different coral types (soft, lps, sps, not individuals), lumens and par of the light source, and of coarse, depth and area of tank.
i too am sick of hearing about watts per gallon, and i cant think of a more meaningless and misleading lighting formula.