Is there such thing as too much light?

[marinegeek101]

Hey,

Ive just started a marine aquarium about 2-3 months ago. I now have a 32 gallon aquarium with a power compact light(65 watts). I know this means i have only 2 watts per gallon, thats why im looking at buying a new light which comes with a 250 watt ballast, 14k bulb and spyder reflectors. Is this to much wattage?

Lyndon

 

[jetaero]

You may want to keep it a good distance from the top of the tank... But it should work.. I would reccomend finding a 150w light.

I have a 175w running on my 20g long.

-Josh-

 

[shallowreef]

Well i don't kno wif there is such a thing as too much light but with light comes unwanted heat. So you may find yourself spending a lot more money then you anticipated on a chiller. Ask Krish he knows all about that.

BTW Welcome to Reef Frontiers!

 

[marinegeek101]

thanks

is there a way of buying a bulb with less wattage if buying that light is my last choice?

 

[jetaero]

No, it'll blow out the bulb.. Always get the bulb the ballast is rated for.

250 should be OK, just keep it a good distance above the tank to prevent heat from getting in, and overlighting

-Josh-

 

[marinegeek101]

thanks

Lyndon

 

[Krish]

Welcome to RF! I had a 14K 250 metal halide setup over my 38gal and worked perfectly. I had the light suspended 12 inches off of the water

 

[jezzeaepi]

Too much light all depends on what your keeping. 250W MH will probably melt your shrooms and possibly other softies if you have them. LPS and zoa's have also been known to bleach under light in that range. If your planning on sps thought it would be perfect.

 

[Steven Pro]

Yes, there is a point when you provide too much light. It is called photo-inhibition and has been written about by people such as Dana Riddle and others.

 

[JasonD]

To help with "too much light" you could run a higher "K" bulb. For example: The PAR rating of the XM 20K is about half of the XM 10K. With the 20K you would not need supplemental actinic. This would help with heat. Also run a fan on top of the tank to remove heat.

 

[alison]

I would be worried about the health of your corals and added heat.

 

[Skimmy]

i think a 250 w should be just fine imo, just address the possible heat and evaporation issues and you will be peachy.
i know people who have put 400w m.h. on 20g tanks with great success, but granted it was an sps /clam system, so if you are going to have just softies then you dont need 250w, but if you want sps, or clams or anemones then go for it.

 

[zenn]

There is such a thing as too much light in my opinion. But it really depends on what you're trying to keep in the tank. Too much light can happen when you're trying to keep corals that won't tolerate MH lighting. There's more coral than you would think that can't tolerate high MH lights. I'm assuming you want to keep anemone's/clams/sps?

 

[marinegeek101]

thanks! I now have a 65 watt power compact light pairing together a 10.000k and 460nm actinic. I know its only 2 watts per gallon but i wanted to know what corals i could buy with that amount of light.

 

[redrooster]

I wanted to know if you think that I am running too much light. I have 2x250W MH 14K Hamiltons and 2x 40W actinic flouro on a 75 gal about 8" above the surface. My tank temp is OK without a chiller. I had a awesome zoo rock that was under the glass center strip in my tank and looked great for over a year. I moved it 5 inches or so to the right after having to move the rocks one time and the zoo's then mostly just disapered or peeled off in little strips. I also had some shrooms that were placed high in the tank that disappeared. It sounds like I "melted" them? I keep a mixed tank (SPS,softies) so should I just make sure to keep zoo's, shrooms, and such in the bottom third of the tank? Yellows polyps have done great near the surface oddly enough. It sounds like running a higher K bulb would help? Should I let my bulbs go more than a year since I don't need all of my light production anyway? Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Krish]

I ran dual 250W halides over my 75gal and everything seemed fine. Well, I didn't have any corals then, just a few zoo's and some fish, but I ran 20K XM bulbs and IMO, it wasn't too much light. I was going for the dual 175's, but was told by many here I'd regret it to go with the 250's so I think you're good

 

[Sherman]

I run dual 150 DEs over my 38, and actually want more light. I run the bulbs about 4" from the water to get better penetration.

A friend has a 12g with a PFO pendant that has (1) 150w DE and (2) 75w VHO Act03, for 300w of total light over a 12g. Honestly, his corals (sps) are on the pale side, but far from brown by any means. However, he gets AWESOME growth.

His other tank is a 29g cube with a single 250w DE, and it has no problems at all. It's also SPS heavy.