346 watts sitting on a 29 gallon

Actnatural

Moved On
250watt mh
96watt 4xt5

If I can keep the water temp in check whats the worst that could happen with that much juice on top of a 29 gallon? will the corals sunburn in a sense?
 
some (maybe most?) sps can take that much light. but they need to be acclimated to it very slowly.

but yes it is entirely pointless and i dont even understand why this question would be asked. if you have that fixture, just take out the halide bulb and run it with T5's only. or run it with the halide only for SPS.
 
Yes they will all bleach and die. You would be running 2-3x the max power for most coral

How do you figure that?

What is "2-3x the max power" ?? That makes zero sense.

I have run similar amounts of light over a 29 in the past and had no issues. If you acclimate the corals to the light you shouldn't have any issues.
 
Just curious but are you over driving the t5 bulbs or did you mean 96 watt PC bulbs?

The 80 watters are almost 5 feet long.
 
Just curious but are you over driving the t5 bulbs or did you mean 96 watt PC bulbs?

The 80 watters are almost 5 feet long.

96/4 = 24, the OP is using 24w T5 bulbs. The OP worded it very poorly and I had to stop and think for a minute to figure out what was going on.

4 T5s over a 29 gallon should be plenty but the OP could always turn on the Halide for maybe 2 hours a day at most.

I personally wouldn't run a 250w MH over a 29. It is just too much.
 
I think you just built a microwave oven.

This gets my vote for funniest post of the day.

On a more serious note, while I agree you can certainly acclimate most sps to what's planned here, I think there will be serious issues with keeping water temp. under control as well as with light bleed depending on the tank's surroundings if this isn't in a hood. On the flip-side, I think it would end up being too much for anything BUT sps even at the very bottom of the tank.
 
Not crazy a few years ago some guys were running 400w halides over their 29s I ran 2x250w HQI over my 29 for about 7 months. Got good growth then I upgraded the tank to a 40br.
 
Not crazy a few years ago some guys were running 400w halides over their 29s I ran 2x250w HQI over my 29 for about 7 months. Got good growth then I upgraded the tank to a 40br.

How did you manage heat in the tank? How far from the waterline?
 
I run 966 watts at peak for 5 hours out of a 10 hour light period over a 55 gallon with no ill effects. been like this for a long time. had no bleaching or deaths when i started this either. 3- 250 watt halides at 14 inches above the water and 4 t5s at 16 inches.
corals couldnt be happier.
t5s-10 hours
1 250 for 7 hours
2 250s for 5 hours.

with this schedule i havent had a prob with heat.
76.5 at night and 78.5 at hottest part of day. cooling fan comes on at 81 degrees.

this is my experience fwiw.
 
I run a 250 watt halide in a LB mini pendant on a 20 x 20 x 10 H cube .

Bulb to water line is 14 inches . Heat is not an issue with a JBJ nano chiller .

I guess the chiller is the answer to my question and should be something the IP should note.
 
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