250watters go deep enough?

[naser]

anyone using 250 watt MH on a 22 or 24 inch deep tank?

[PerryinCA]

If you figure in that you are going to have a DSB (guessing), a 250w should be OK for most applications. The only real exception would be if you wanted to use a 10k or higher CCT lamp and have SPS from top to bottom. The 250w would still work there, but you would lack coloration and perhaps growth on the lower half of the tank compared to the upper half.

[naser]

the tank is allready up i have about a inch and a hlaf of sand across the bottom maybe 2 inches? i sold off my 400watters cause of the electric bill. right now im running 4 55watt pc's. i want to keep two or maybe all 4 pc's and add 2 250 watt 6500k iwasaki's. i had 400 watt iwasaki's and 2 140 watt vho's that set up was killing me. im cutting my lighting in half. plus i got rid of alot of pumps..

[PerryinCA]

The should work just fine. Its obviously not as much as the 400s, but it should surely be sufficient.

-Perry

[naser]

i know had great coloration from the 400's but i started to pay more for my tank then my car.

[PerryinCA]

the luxury of California eh? ;;

I think the 250's will do fine for ya.

-Perry

[naser]

yea im setting up my 55 gallon reef.... never had a problem with that one.. the 125 need alot more light to do the same thing...

[scubadude]

Hey naser

My tank is 24" deep and Im using 250 HQI's DE and have atleast 3 or 4 different SPS on the bottom that are growing at surprising rates! BTW I got the AM3000 and the SS's thanx Bro! ;;

[naser]

the 250 hqi's are tempting but being that their 100 bucks more for the ballast and more for bulbs im not sure i will go that route.

[Claude Pool]

Scubadude:


Do you have any actinic supplementation? I am using 10K 150W HQI DE without actinics and my corals turn brown within a few weeks of purchase. I wish I knew if they have too much or too little PAR and/or need actinics.

If you do not have actinics, what are your colors like?

Thanks, Claude.














w

[naser]

im guessing by them turning brown they do not have enough light.

[Claude Pool]

I don't know what to think. I had a pink catspaw which turned brown under the 150W HQI DE. It was up high in the tank. I moved it down thinking it had too much light and it bleached. I put it back where it was, about 50% of if did not recover but what recovered gradually went from cream to pink then unfortunately continued to darken and is now brown.

Claude

[Ironreef]

fwiw http://www.reefcentral.com/vbulletin...612#post544612 he has sp on the bottom...but it's a 75g but the sps is nice and purple

[Claude Pool]

Thanks Ironreef

That's a beautiful coral. I e-mailed MDM to try to find out what his previous lighting was. That should be very telling.

Claude