150w Clip On Halide

[jagz]

hi guys i am planing on setting up a 3-4ft reef ,

i already have a 150w clip on halide that was used on a nano tank, what i would like to know do you think it would be ok to use one of these on this size tank , i can easy add a few T5s if i have too.

cheers

jagz

 

[ben1987]

i imagine you wont get a very good spred of light been as it was designed for a small tank, but maybe if you added a couple of t5s and had this over the main formation of rocks then you could keep corals on the bright bit.

 

[Crazy fishes]

I see no reason not to use the halide; it is certainly one of the most effective light sources going!! You must remember however that a 150 W halide will give sufficient light to a volume of water 2x2x2 feet. It would be therefore producing slightly dark areas of 0.5-0.75 foot going by 3-4 foot tank you have. Depth is the most important factor as light severely diminishes to the deeper it has to travel. What are the actual dimensions of the tank? At this point I would think two approaches are possibly 1) suppliment the halide with HO/VHO actinic tubes 2) get another 150 W halide unit. The latter would give better lighting but may not be necessary as it depends on what you wish to keep.

Hope this helps

Regards

 

[jagz]

thank you very much to both replys

the tank will possible be 18-20" i supose i could get another halide if i went for a 4ft tank as the are fairly cheap now .

i would like to keep mainly softies for no until i get a bit more experience with marines , i dont wanna jump in the deep end.

if i chose the 3ft could i just not add 2 39w T5s to the tank that should add extra light to the centre of the tank for the more light demanding corals and enough light to the sides for the less demanding corals

thank you

jagz

 

[Crazy fishes]

If you are interested in only soft corals for now then simple fluorescent tubes would do. If you using the halide make sure it has a 10 inches or so from the surface and allow some shadey areas for those corals who don't appreciate the intense light. This might be where those shadey areas come in handy. LPS corals require similar light requirements as the soft corals for the most part. Maybe look into some Euphyllia species like the hammer or frogspawn but they require calcium and bicarbonate like the SPS corals. This is easy enough suppliment though.

Best of luck

Regards

 

[jagz]

cheers crazy , im not just interested in the softies but i will be to start with , i do hope to keep sps in the future once i am more experienced .
but i want to use up the equiptment i have around instead of it just sitting there.

i have decided to go for a tank that in in the region of 48"x15"x20" deep and im hopeing i can use my single halide and 2 54w T5s if i need nore lighting i will add another halide at a later date,

how does that sound

jagz

 

[Crazy fishes]

Nope I see no problem with that. I think for softies a single halide with a photo period of about 6 hours and then the rest with just T5s sounds great. Is that actinic or daylight or a 50:50 mix with the T5s?

Any more questions just ask

Regards

 

[jagz]

Is that actinic or daylight or a 50:50 mix with the T5s?

Any more questions just ask

Regards

im not sure what do you reccomend? i was just going to get a twin T5 starter then i was going to ask about bulbs but might aswell answer that now if you can.

so shall i go for actinic and daylight

or

2 actinics

or

2 daylights



jagz

 

[ox5477]

Well u could do either really. You might wanna go with actinics as they will make the colors of the coral phosphoress beautifully, but one of each wouldn't hurt either. These I would recommend be used a quasi- sunrise/sunset so either would work. The main growth power will be coming from the halide so these will be to help cover the ends of the tank and as said, can be used to give the corals a more natural photo period

Ox

 

[jagz]

excellent cheers ox

i think i will get 2 actinics and 1 daylight and have a play with what works best , and if i use one of each at least i have a spare actinic

cheers

jagz