Lighting question on a 20g

[WILL2002]

I need advice. I am down sizing on tanks. I saw from nanotuners they have a 20g bow front tank you can get a 150w hqi +2-18w pc's, total watts per gallon would come to be 9.3, is that to much?? I am used to haveing about 4 to 5 per gallon.

 

[WILL2002]

can anyone tell me if thats good or bad to have 9w per gallon of light on a 20g??

 

[istio]

The watts per gallon rule is rather meaningless. Many people keep fantastic 20g reefs under 150watt HQI alone (10000K-13000K but not generally 20000K). If 150Watts are adequite why go for 1.) increased power consumption, heat and costs 2.) reduced space under the hood.

Hope this helps
Ciao

 

[WILL2002]

THANK YOU CIAO. I WAS ALWAYS TOLD TO TRY AND BE BETWEEN 4-8W PER GALLON AND I WAS AFRAID THAT I WOULD FRY THE CORALS IF I GOT THIS SET UP. THE HEAT I'M NOT TO AFRAID OF BECAUSE I ALREADY RIGGED UP SOME FANS FOR THE SUNPOD HQI THAT I AM GETTING FOR MY 29G.

 

[15nano]

I have a friend that had a 20 long with 2x75w vho and a 65w power compact. He had no problems and stuff grew fast even his clams.

 

[WILL2002]

sweat, i've been wanting to go sps, lps, & clams in my tanks anyway. thanks

 

[Poorcollegereef]

i have the aqualight clamp on 150MH and I am extremely happy with it. When trying to figure out how much light, I always go by watt/depth(in) with MH, but obviously that will depend on alot of things. So for my 20L with 150w is about 12.5watts-per-inch (wpi) of water, which ofcourse, the deeper parts of the tank recieve less light than the first couple of inches. Some suggest 175w for tanks 20in deep as long as sps/clams are kept towards the top (8.75wpi). 250w for 30'' (8.3wpi) and 400w for 48'' of water (again 8.3wpi) so I guess as long as you have 8.3wpi you should be fine for sps and other light loving creatures imo

 

[LUCKY42032]

I have a 250w MH plus 2- 75 watt VHO over my 20 gal. My clam is doing very well in the sand and all of my sps is growing well and has a lot of color. I don't have heat issues because of fans and a sump. Overall I am very happy with my lighting setup.

 

[WILL2002]

Poorcollegereef and Lucky42032, thanks for repling and making me feel better about haveing that much light on a tank. If I'm not mistak'n my lfs told me 4-8wpg and don't go over it. It's so hard to figure out if lfs's know what they're talking about sometimes. Thank goodness for the people of reef central.:rollface:

 

[Brooks_McClary]

I have 2 65w PC lights over my 20 high. It is plenty bright, even for my hard coral. Sure, its not MH but it doesn't heat up or pull a ton of current. I like it.