Do you think 2 400W MH Lamps over my 75 would be overkill? It just seems the 2x250 sunpod I have now isn't cutting it for the corals below about 10 inches and as my real estate is becoming limited i need more corals to go down lower so I was thinking I could trade my sunpod for some sort of hanging setup.
Overkill?
- Thread starter joker577
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Herefishyfishy
Smart Bass
Absolutely......
salmonslayer
UP ALL NIGHT
Absolutely...... x 2
roscoe
Well-known member
Well it depends how high you want to hang your lights but yes it is overkill and adding more heat to the tank and cost more to run but it will work. What ever you feel is right for your situation is what i think you should do.
roscoe
Well-known member
I have had experianced 400w over my 20g at one point for over a year no temp problem at all I had it about 15'' above my water line with 6'' fan and my temp never climbed over 82 degrees. I had more growth with the 400w than I do now with a 250w over my 40b. So yes your corals will get burned with 400w if you mount your lights 6'' over it so just mount it appropriately and you will be fine. I have a 40b right now I'm thinking of going 400w with that so I can raise the lights up more so that way I have more room to work inside my tank and spread the lights out more without having to twist which everway to work in the tank. JMO
roscoe
Well-known member
Yeah if you want more lights just add some t-5s or something.
Larry 23
Member
thats what i use on my 75 gal. pfo hqi 400w ballast with 2 reef flux 10,000k bulbs 9 inches from the surface temp. is 77.0 with 1 fan on low , so i wouldnt say thats overkill
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Herefishyfishy
Smart Bass
Larry, what brand of ballast and what brand and color of bulbs?
Larry 23
Member
its a PFO ballast 400 HQI-120V 4.55x2 ,and i use reefflux 10,000k single ended bulbs:idea::idea:
Herefishyfishy
Smart Bass
Thanks, you ever try the reeflux 12Ks?
Interesting idea of using an HQI ballast on single ended bulbs, to overdrive.
How long to your bulbs last?
Larry 23
Member
no i havent tryed 12k's ,i like to run them about 9 months.works well for me
kevinpo
Expert
I have been running 400W 10,000K Reeflux bulbs using a PFO HQI ballast for 5 years over my two cube tanks and it is 16" to the sand with the lights mounted 9" off the water surface. For some corals it is too much light but for others it is required to keep the colors I want.
When I say too much light for some corals I mean they are not the colors I'm trying to achieve. SPS corals are quite adaptive and on average darken under low light and lighten when the light is increased. It can take more than six months for corals to adapt to changes in light intensity although the average time is two to four weeks.
Regards,
Kevin
When I say too much light for some corals I mean they are not the colors I'm trying to achieve. SPS corals are quite adaptive and on average darken under low light and lighten when the light is increased. It can take more than six months for corals to adapt to changes in light intensity although the average time is two to four weeks.
Regards,
Kevin
I run 2 400W 12k reefluxes over my 58 gallon oceanic. They are 12" off of the water. No temp issues and they work fine. You can't transfer corals easily from another set up as they always bleach, but start at the sand and move up, they will bounce back.
-chris
-chris
freetareef
Well-known member
ahh... i have seen 2 400s over a custom frag tank that was 10" deep, he got a 680 par reading at the bottom of 10" of water hanging his lights @13" above the water surface. if you are hanging them above your tank i would say go for it. i don't think i would put them in an enclosed hood... remember light intensity drops at the rate of an inverse square... and 20" of tank and water is quite a bit. btw.. the 400 had lumenarc reflectors...nice set up....obsess much?
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