Should I buy this Metal Halide ?

[mrpenguin]

I have the opportunity to buy a 150W coral life metal halide hang on light as shown here ...

Coral Life Metal Halide

It is used but the bulb has been replaced and is only a couple of months old.

I can buy it for half the price as a new one ... $150 Can

I have never looked into used Metal Halides so I have no idea if this is a good buy or not.

At the moment I am using T5 HO 4 x 54w on a 75G tank, I have only stag horn coral in there but I am planing on getting more corals in the future

 

[Davidd2324]

Thats 2 watts per gallon.

I just searched stag horn coral light recommendations and it led me to this site

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=16&cat=1928&articleid=2353

It recommends strong lighting; upwards of 5 watts per gallon.

On my 75 I will be using 2 x 250 watts MH

thats my $.02 though.

 

[mrpenguin]

Ok, I bought the light ........ it was $150 with he ballast so it seemend pretty cheap to me ... I hope I am right

I have a question .... do I only use the Metal Halide now or should I try and fit it in next to my T5 HO and use both of them ??

 

[NanoGurl]

That light is not going to work on a 4' tank. You need two of them. I had two of those on my old 75g and they were decent.

 

[oceanparadise1]

two watts pergallon? that rule doesn apply any more with the t5s u would have been fine with those lights all u needed to do was buy slrs and u would have more then enough light for any corals

 

[mrpenguin]

right now I am trying to figgure out how I can use both of them ... move my T5 light as far to the front of the tank as possible and then put the MH as far in the back as possible but sinse I have this plastic support beam on my tank I will have to put it on the left hand side of the tank ( over flow is on the right hand side) and maybe put all my hard corals on the left side .... I will also only run the MH for maybe not more than 3 hours a day and the T5 for 10 hours.

 

[oceanparadise1]

u should just sell that light for what u paid for it and buy the single light refractors for the t5s then u can put anything anywhere in ur tank

 

[grigsy]

it will work ok but you should add a second bulb. One halide alone wont do it for a four ft tank.

 

[mrpenguin]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12840612#post12840612 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by grigsy
it will work ok but you should add a second bulb. One halide alone wont do it for a four ft tank.

Ok, but one MH with the T5's ??

 

[oceanparadise1]

i still think u should just sell the mh and buy slrs u will be so much happier and it will just look better over all

 

[mrpenguin]

Is this considered slrs ? ...

[/IMG]

 

[oceanparadise1]

i cant really tell i mean does each bulb have its one reflector or is it one big piece

 

[mrpenguin]

its one big piece but each bulb is separated so yeah its as if each bulb has its own reflector ... teflects on 3 sides ... back and sides.

 

[oceanparadise1]

who makes ur t5 set up? and if its one big peice its not slr

 

[reefgeek31]

no that is not considered separate reflectors

 

[Chipie]

Humm... I have a Coralife hang on tank light like the one you just bought but it's on a 24 inches tank. It covers 24 inches max, so unless you want you tank to be brighter to one side, you need two of those hang on lights. Your T5 reflector look pretty good. They seem to surround the bulbs pretty well.