Such thing as too much light

[Marco3995]

If I went with 2 400 watt Metal Halide bulbs would that be too much for softies? ie leathers and such? I am thinking of higher wattage for the lps I have and the clams, yes its a mixed tank, but just wondering if I could hurt the softies while pleasing the others.
I know people are going to say you shouldn`t mix corals in a tank.

 

[jag1979]

how deep is the tank, how high will the mh's be? My 250's shrink some of my softies/zoa's when they are all on. they are at the bottom of a 24" tank.

 

[Ti]

It can be

 

[Rockitmakr]

Depends on depth. If you are going with 2 400 watters in a 65 gallon tank, I would say that it is a bit much....IMO
:beer:

 

[Marco3995]

its a 135 gallon
dimensions: 48" long
24"wide
24"deep

 

[jag1979]

I'd do 250's

 

[Rockitmakr]

Me too....:thumbsup:
:beer:

 

[bubbaOPPD]

Marco, the dimensions you gave are for a 120gal, and I had 2x 400W MH and 260W PC actinics on my 4'x2'x2' tank with softies no problems but I had the MH 8" above the tank and glass tops to keep the fairy wrasses in.

 

[Marco3995]

Thanks, maybe this will work if I place the lights higher off the surface of the water, as described above. The wider light given off despite the fact that my light hood is a little small will be a bonus besides I hate to have to upgrade lighting again if I decide to go SPS.

 

[HippieSmell]

You can grow anything with 250W halides in a tank that deep. Why not save some money?

 

[GSMguy]

if you can raise the lights you can use 3 1000 watters its all relative you just need to think objectivly

 

[Henry Bowman]

I had a tank (before I moved several times) exactly that size with 2 250's over it and a custom PC light with various bulbs in it.

It was plenty enough light for the tank. Clams some SPS etc..

 

[jag1979]

In my 180 the sps is doing better then the softies and lps so I am switching to either 14k or 20k bulbs to lower the intensity. If you do decide to go 400 watt I would get 20k bulbs then you won't need actics, unless you want the dust/dawn

 

[jag1979]

oh, the bottom of the bulbs are about 9" above the water

 

[MC Lighting]

On my 180 I have 2-250's and one 400 in the center with PC actnics all the way down front and back, My LFS guru and I thought that way I can put the more light requiring inhabitants more in the center and the lesser in the ends amazingly I cannot tell the difference in intesity between the 3....

 

[ronald7410]

ok so im also planning on settin up SPS 100 gallon tank thats 60" long and 24" tall. so the 2x250w are fine for me also? input please.
someone please pm me.

 

[pjf]

Dawn to Dusk Lighting Still Works

Dawn to Dusk Lighting Still Works

If you think you may have too much light, simply use a dawn-dusk lighting scheme. For example, turn on each of your bulbs eight hours a day but start them 4 hours apart. The mid-day full lighting will provide light to the depths of your aquarium. If that dynamically photoinhibits SPS corals at the top of your aquarium, they can resume photosynthesis in the lesser afternoon light.