How much is too much light for 50G 18" depth

[Mr.HaHa]

Looking at a couple options for my new setup

first, my tank is a 50g BDR 36x18x18.

I will not have a hood.

here are the options that i have come up with:

for those who have had experience with a 36x18 tank, would you reccomend 1 mh or 2mh? this will be a mixed reef.

also, i will be running either 150w or 250w phoenix 14k bulb. will 250w be TOO intense for 18" depth (figure the light will be 22-24 inches from the surface of the water)

obv the below fixtures are not cheap..i most likely will be staying away from the odyssea fixture.

1)Current USA 36 inch Outer Orbit 2x250w 10K HQI-MH w/ 4x39w T5 HO & 18 Lunar Lights

2)36" Current USA Outer Orbit 10000K HQI Metal Halide
1x150W Dual Daylight / 2x96W Dual Actinic & 4 Lunar Lights

3)36" 1x150W HQI MH + 2x65W PC + 2 LED Coralife Aqualight Pro Fixture

any ideas/suggestions would be greatly appreciated

also, if anyone has a hood that would git a 36x18x18..i would be interested in that!!!

 

[JD46]

I used to run 2 250W DE pendants over a 46. Pendants were 10" above the surface. Everything seemed to adapt well. When adding a new coral, start them low in the tank.

JD

 

[fanaglethebagle]

It's hard to put too much light over a tank. I have seen 250's on 10 gallon nanos and they do fine. The only problem is evaporation rate.

 

[Mr.HaHa]

agreed on evap...

what i might do is make shift an acrylic cover for the tank..not sure how this will affect my temps though..could get bad..will be running a sump.

so i guess you really can't have too much light then huh? ill def be careful to adjust my sps over time..depth wise.

 

[fanaglethebagle]

I would not try to hold the evaporation in, it will cause temp spikes. The cover will also reduce the power of the light.

For future reference, threads like this should probably go in reef talk, you will get more hits.

 

[Greg Hiller]

I'd say you could go with either a pair of 150's, a pair of 250's, or a single 250. All with some additional actinics. The advantage of a pair of bulbs is always that you will get a more even distribution of light. Light from a single point source makes for weird shadows in a tank and makes it diffcult (IMO) to see the colors of some corals well. For LPS, this shadows effect is much less of a concern, for SPS, it's more of a concern.

 

[Jill & Brian]

I would go with option 1 above in either 150 or 250 MH. You will be better off with t-5 for actinic supplementation, and with 4 bulbs, you could even add a daylight bulb for more growth. The t-5 will have better color, and longer life than the PC bulbs

-Brian

 

[chew*]

If cost is an issue, a single 250 DE will suit your needs and likely allow some sps and clams. I didn't see anyone mention it above but a DE ( double ended ) will cast a more evenly distrubuted light pattern than a SE ( single ended ) In fact a single 250 watt DE is comparable to a 400 watt SE. I'm running a single 250 DE atm about 12 inches above my tank (65 gallon 36" wide ) and there is plenty of light coverage, Once i build my custom canopy there will be even more.

 

[besl]

Great question - good area to explore before you buy - can be an expensive mistake if you change your mind. Now I hate answering your question with time worn responses, but it is important to understand what you want to keep to know which light would be best. If it is softies, lps or mixed reef with easy to keep sps, then you will be perfectly fine with the 150w mh OO fixture. I have had this fixture for the past 1.5 years and it has worked out well. The probelm is that I had the opportunity to see a couple of incredible tanks (I hope I don't embarrass anyone here, but - reefnroll (see TOTM) and liam are 2 of my benchmarks) and I got the bug for more light demanding species afetr I saw their tanks and I am now changing to the 250w version of the OO. I guess that speaks well for Current USA that I am staying with their brand (I had a Coralife on my old system and ended up not happy with it) - this time I will be using the 250w mh with T5 rather than the 150w mh with pc. I have a tank pic in the Photo section with the OO 150w mh/pc fixture and hope to post pics with the new 250w mh and t5 combo over the next couple of weeks. Good luck and have fun researching this.

 

[emabie]

I just changed my tank from PCs to HQIs and T5s for actinic. I think the t5s are allot better light compared to the PCs. I have a 72'' tank and went with (3) 250 10ks and 4 T5 actinic. I love the even disbursement with multiple MHs.

I also agree U can't have too much light, but U can have 2 much heat but your sump should help with that.

 

[Mr.HaHa]

thanks for all the responses...

Greg: i agree with you on the pair of MH!the distrubution of light is extremely important to me.
My reef will consist of a few lps (blastos, torch) and certainly some sps (millis, montis and porites...maybe others but for now these 3)

as for options, the outerorbit "seems" to be a pretty solid fit. I will certainly need to think about the future of this tank in order to properly decide between wattage.

another option would be to have a hanging fixture. Now i am not sure i want to drill into my ceiling so what i MIGHT do is mod my stand with metal braces that hang over the tank and attach to the back of the stand.

thanks for the advice...still no where NEAR done with my research but all comments help.

 

[JohnK]

FWIW, I ran a single 400W over a 58G (same footprint, just a couple of inches taller). I was happy with it and the 400 does spread the light out pretty well for a single lamp.

That said, if I were doing it all over again I'd rather have 2 bulbs for the reasons Greg stated.

I agree, you don't want to cover the tank. Evaporation is your friend when the temps go up.

If you don't already have the tank, one thing to consider is that the AGA brand 50G has a centerbrace at the top which a lot of people find to be annoying. If you can track down a nice used older Oceanic brand 58G, (or 50G if they made that size?) they use slightly thicker glass and no center brace. A major bonus IMO/IME. Might be hard to find though since AGA bought out oceanic quite a while ago.

Also, not to sound rude at all, but I second the comment that this topic might be more appropriate in the "reef talk" forum. It's up to thread starters to choose where their topics belong and you have every right to ignore this suggestion, but if by any chance you think about it and agree, you can always ask the mods to move the thread. (hit the little exclamation point icon at the bottom of each post, this will send an alert to the mods with a space to add comments). Again, no rudeness intended, just a friendly suggestion to keep things organized since there is no formal system at this point for deciding what's an "advanced topic".

Good luck with planning the new system, sounds like it will be very nice.

 

[chew*]

Well a picture can say a 1000 words so here it is. I could probably get it brighter with a better housing etc lumen max or lumen arc 3. This is a 65 gal aga which is very similar to your 50 bdr save the fact i have not modded plexi into center brace yet and my tank is deeper. Its a 250w DE 14k hamilton bulb.

 

[~Flighty~]

Moved to reeftalk at therad starters request
~Cindy

If there is no center brace a single would probably work well, but you don't want one light over a brace because of the shaddow.

 

[Mr.HaHa]

there is a center brace..however...i have no qualms with cutting/modding the tank.

i also just realized that my other tank has a leak...glad i have this tank now!

btw...does anyone know a good glass person? tropic isle charges 30 per hole..wondering if i can get this cheaper elsewhere.

 

[JohnK]

What size holes (bulkhead size that is) do you need? How many? Where are you located?

I can drill for 1" bulkheads (1 7/8" hole), but that's the only size bit I have other than a little one for kent style float valves. I accept good karma and or good beer as payment. (Send me a PM if you'd like my help, sunday afternoon/evenings are usually good for me, I'm in sudbury ma, you'd have to bring the tank to me since I do it with a drill press).

If not me, plenty of others in the club can do it for you.

Also, Jeremy at CRA has the coolest drilling rig I've ever seen. I think he charges about $10/hole. It's probably worth it IMO just to see how his drilling gadget works.

jk