Can I and should I upgrade from 150w to 250w?

[Tanque Verde]

Hey All,

I've got a question for you. My only metal halide fixture is 150w. But I am thinking about combining two of my nanos into a 50g, and I've got a lead on a 250w fixture.

So here's my question, how do LPS fare under 250w? The 50g is 18 inches deep. Setting aside the necessity of acclimating my livestock, what could I expect from 250w? Too much for euphyllia, favia, acans, etc? Or just fine?

Thanks for your advice.
Ben

 

[aquaph8]

I was also scared to upgrade to a 250 fixture for the same reason. I was also worried about my electric bill.

 

[sillygoose]

We have a 90g that is 24" deep and we are running a Solaris that is supposedly equiv to 250W. Things are doing very well. Our frogspawn and candy canes are growing like weeds and they are mid-tank. We have a favia near the bottom and two acans near the top. If anything, I'd like a bit more power because we have most of our stuff in the top half of the tank.

 

[prickles]

I ran a LPS tank under 2 x250 MH with actinic pc's. It was a standard 125, which I don't know the dimensions, but you can check. The problem was the shrooms grew too fast. We had our euphylia close to the top of the tank, and it grew fast too. I would just make sure you do the lights 1hr the first day, 2hrs the second day etc to make sure you don't burn anything. Favia had no probs...Don't forget how powerful the sun is compared to our wussy lights.

 

[killafornia]

I run 3 400 Watt and soon 2 be 2 60 inch vho my electric bill went up 70 bucks not to bad

 

[Climb16]

The 250s are great i have everything under them and love. acans open nice and acros are bright.

Ben you can come take a look at one of my tanks if you want too see what you think

Kevin