150 watts too much for 14g?

[atlweb]

I am looking at lighting options for a 14g rimless tank and I keep going back and forth between 70w and 150w. I do not want any limits on what I can keep in the tank (clams, sps, etc.), but I also do not want to be bleaching out corals.

Anyone have experience with a 150w on a smaller tank? Obviously there will be heat and evap. issues, but I am planning on an ATO and I don't mind using fans. However, if 70w is enough for a 15x15x15, that would work best (although they don't make very many great 70w bulbs

 

[superclown]

you could go with a 150w but it might be overdoing it. I don't have any first hand experience have you thought about led's I am getting great growth running to ecoxotic led's and im pretty sure someone in the for sale thread was selling some at a fair price

 

[atlweb]

I have heard a lot of good things about LED's, but I am still sort of a MH guy. I like the idea of having the closest thing to natural sunlight.

A lot of people talk about heat issues on the 150w, but I currently have a 150w over my solana and it literally gets the tank up one degree after being on for 9 hours. I assume cutting the tank size in half would increase that a little bit, but then I could just run it higher off the tank. Don't get me wrong... a 70w sounds ideal.... but would it look as good as a phoenix 14k on a 150w? Maybe I just need to find a good 70w bulb option.

 

[enderg60]

its fine, my old 14g had a 150w halide and 2 65w pc's on it, plus the phoenix 14k is awesome on electronic ballasts!

 

[cbj25]

150w is fine, just make sure to start your corals on the sand bed and progressively move them up so they dont bleach. Throw that 150 on the new tank and get a new 250w for the solana!

 

[enderg60]

ranco and fans, system only got to 83 when my dad was being cheap and wouldnt turn the a/c on.

Just FYI if I were to build that system now, I would have gone with 5 T5's or LED's

 

[freezerrat]

I had a 150w coralife clamp-on over my 14g nanocube. Corals LOVED it. Had no problems even with softies. Only thing is you will need a fan. Temp was 85 without. I put the fan and the light on one timer and the temp was stable at whatever I set it at.

 

[cbj25]

Amici;602514 wrote: How did each of you prevent temp swings?

Fans, topless, window AC unit, and ATO

 

[freezerrat]

cbj25;602619 wrote: Fans, <span style="font-size: 13px">topless</span></em>, window AC unit, and ATO

Good point. I wouldn't have tried it as a retro fit in the cover.

 

[freezerrat]

Amici;602605 wrote: I guess the long and short answer is yes you can do a 150w on a 14g cube but they will will require fans on a temp controller which will run you probably another $100.

A controller probably wouldn't be necessary. All I had was a two outlet dial style timer. Light and fan on the timer so the fan would do it's thing when the light was on. But it is worth noting that the fan worked well enough that the heater was on during the day. They kind of fought each other. So, with that thought, a controller would take care of that issue.