How tall of a tank will a MH 150Watt work for?
 

HI,

I have a 150 Watt MH w/ 20K bulb. I want to put it over a colum tank. I'm going to get the a Marineland 47, or 37, Column tank.

The 37 is 24" tall and the 47 is 30" tall. I realize the light might be too little by the time it reaches the bottom... Is 30" too deep for my light?

My preference is the 47 Gallon Tank.

Does anyone have any input?

Thanks for your help!

What do you plan to keep?

hey man, welcome to the board.
I have a 24' deep tank with 2x150w 20k hqi halides and I found that my lighting was good to very good.

you might want to consider going with a 6700k or a 10k halide and then working some supplemental actinics into your lighting plan.
There is better par at depth with a whiter spectrum, so you'd be more likely to have success with sps or clams if you did it that way.

I would expect you might want to go for a 175 or 250 halide for the 30" depth though, depending on what you want to keep and where in your tank you'd like to place it.

cheers, from one noob to another.

20" to 24" works fine. I had it on a 29" deep mixed reef tank & it wasn't not powerful enough. 150w with a good bulb would be fine for a fowlr or mostly softie tank though.

I have a 65g hex which is 30" tall.....I have the Coralife Aqualight Pro with 150w....it is "adequate" in the tank with softies and some LPS...I have Frogspawn mid tank and a brain on the bottom of the tank BUT I regret not going with a 250w. It really really limits you with the 150w.

Thanks guys!

I really appreciate your input, especially from people that have tried that setup. Since I already have the light and am buying the tank, I will probably go for the 24” high, 37gallon.

I like the height/look of the 47, but it sounds like I will be pushing my light too thin. The column tanks are narrow so it’s going to be hard to have much liverock “real estate” up high.

-Rob

To "Chaloupa" and "SeaHorse_Fanatic" :

How high above the tank do you hang your pendants?

Thanks again!

My light sits on the tank frame with the legs provided by Coralife.....so it's quite close!