150 watt HQI's

[pscheel]

Anyone thin this is overkill for a 10 gallon SPS nano? Or... would you go with PC's.TIA

[Rin]

As long as you can keep it cool, you should be fine. Evaporative cooling is sort of out of the question, because your salinity swings will be pretty severe in a tank that small.

What ideas do you have in that area? What kind of recirculation were you thinking of?

[pscheel]

Rin, I keep the room temp at 75-80. I will raise the pendant as necessary and have a fan blowing across the surface of the water and it will have an auto top off. Someone is always home to keep an eye on it. I am leaning towards skimmerless and using an aquaclear 150 and maybe a small powerhead for circulation. Are these bulbs much hotter than MH's?

[Rin]

An HQI isn't really that much hotter than most MHs, but they do run a little bit warmer because of the extra PAR they generate. By that I mean that they don't 'feel' hotter to the touch but they generate more radiant heat which can be felt from a distance. It goes with the territory.

It sounds like you have a good plan, though. You may have to experiment with moving the light up and down to control the heating. Keep the water moving so the animals don't cook from absorbing all that energy.

Maybe you can post a pic when it's all set up.

[PerryinCA]

I think you'll be fine. The pendant actually does a good job keeping the lamp heat contained. The radiant heat is lessened pretty well by it. I don't forsee a problem.

-Perry