Is my lighting sufficient?

[dmahoney82]

I ran power compacts on my 55gal for a number of years with great results. Obviously, I only had soft corals and fish. A few months ago I boughted me some metal halides!!! The fixture is 48" dual 150watts. I bought some 14K Phoenix bulbs and love them. They run from 10am-8pm. I've been using the actinic bulbs(2 55watts) from my power compacts at night for 2 hours after the halides go off.I do not use them in the morning, since my tank receives plenty of light during sunrise. That being said, A couple months ago I added some sps frags from Rit who I can't be more appreciative to. A hell of a tank, and I'm sorry to hear about the recent tragedy. They all seem to be fine as far as crusting over where they were glued and coloring up. Today I picked up 5 more frags! I am aware that running 250watt mh would be better than the 150's. I am not a moran, but I am new to the world of sps. Would running the 2 55watt pc's(non-actinic) make a difference? I know my other frags are growing, but I just want to make sure that I am providing sufficient light to my homies in the glass box.

Thanks,

Danny

 

[xyzpdq0121]

You should be fine with what you have now. To tell you the truth, i do not think that if you got 2 10K PCs in there instead of the actinics, that they are going to add very much Par at all. With how high they are over the water, most of the juice of PC will not make it more then 1/2 way down the tank anyways. I would stick with the config you got right now.

 

[dmahoney82]

Very nice! Me so happy! By the way Brandon that xenia is starting to scare me in how fast it has taken off. Both pieces attached themselves within two days, and have now split off a friend onto the rock I was trying to cover. Thanks again.

 

[xyzpdq0121]

They are weeds I tell you!!! I warned ya!

 

[ralph atl]

Here are a couple of opinions on 2 x150 on a 55 gallon:



In my opinion, two 250 watt metal halide lamps would be extreme overkill on a 55 gallon aquarium. The 150's will be more than enough light for most anything you would want to keep.
________________________________________
Steven Pro, yeah that is my real name.




18-20 & under 150watts
Welcome to the Marine Depot Forums. The wattage of the bulb will mostly depend on the depth of the tank. For SE bulbs there is a pretty set standard of 18" and under 175 watt, 18-24" 250 watt and over 24" deep 400 watt bulbs. But DE bulbs put out a higher PAR than their single ended counter parts. What I generally recommend for DE bulbs is for tanks under 20-22", go with 150 watt and for tanks over this go with 250 watt.
I had a friend over and he took a PAR reading of my 150 watt DE bulb at a depth of about 14-16" deep in my tank. It was comparable to a 250 watt SE bulb.
With both of my tanks I run DE bulbs, 150 watt on my 54 corner tank and three 250 watt bulbs on my 220 tank. I keep a mixture of corals in the 54 including SPS, LPS, softies and a clam and they are all doing well. My 220 is still young and I do not have a lot of corals in there yet, but I do have mainly SPS corals with a few LPS and a yellow leather.
The bulbs do not have actinic lighting in them, but as you go higher in the K rating you will get a bluer bulb that will generally show off the colors better of your corals.
HTH,

________________________________________________
Keith
"One moment of patience may ward off great disaster. One moment of impatience may ruin a whole life."

 

[FutureInterest]

dmahoney82;124871 wrote: I am not a moran

Sorry I couldn't help myself . I think your lighting is just fine, I love the look of the 14k Phoenix bulbs myself. However, I see no reason to not to make full use of the PC fixture. It sounds like you have a 4 bulb PC fixture? 2 actinic and 2 daylight right? I see no reason why you should not utilize all the light you have. Two 150's is not overkill so give your corals some more light since you already have it in place. Although I do suggest that you scrap the daylight bulbs and put in actinics and keep them on even when the halides are on.

 

[dough]

Lighting is only one of several things that will make of break you with SPS. Flow or water movement is just as important as light. Also you will need to maintain cal and alk. As SPS start to take off they will continue to consume more and more. At the very least you will need to dose a two part system if you not already doing that. Also SPS tend to like a cleaner water vs. softies etc. Not to say that you can't have both. So I hope that I'm not repeating anything that you already know.

Pheonix 14K are very good lamps. I was running one 250watt on my tank. I've switch over to a Helios 20K which is whiter than the Pheonix. I was surprised by the color. My colors have responded very positive to the change.

The problem with the Pheonix is that they are very much "monochrome" in color. I struggle with reds and pinks under that lamp. With that said Pheonix is a great bulb. I second the adding some actinics. Daylight or 10K lamps should help help with reds and pinks.

Helps that helps.