175watt MH for 24" depth????

[shoddyk]

Does anyone have 175 watt Metal Halide lights on a tank that is 24" deep? Will 4 x 175 watt MH lights work on a 125 gallon tank and what corals will be good with them?

 

[Hop]

gregm779 does just fine with 3 150 watt hqi.

Check out his thread here

 

[Ti]

175 is good enough, personally I would do a 250

 

[AZDesertRat]

They will be fine. I ran 2x175w Ushio 10k for the first year of my system before switching to 2x250. I honestly didn't see a big difference.

 

[Kewlworm]

So, 175w MH is fine for 24" + that 10" above the water where the light is mounted, correct?

My tank 22" and was wondering if this is enough.

Thanks!

 

[AZDesertRat]

My tank is a 100G about 23" high and the bulbs are 8" above the water surface. The 175s were fine and I had good coral growth with 10K bulbs. I just got a good deal on 250w ballasts so made the change, otherwise I would still have the 175s.

 

[shoddyk]

azdesertrat, can you notice a difference with the lights?

 

[AZDesertRat]

There wasn't a huge difference. I had no complaints with the 175s. I did notice a difference though when I went from Ushio to XM bulbs. I really liked the Ushio and the growth they supported until I made the switch. The XM seems to be much brighter and less yellow, more of a white and even a slight blue color in comparison. Growth seems about the same but color is better.