Antoher lighting question... Sigh...

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by fortheloveofcrabs

I've never seen a 'for sure' answer to this, so I going to ask it again. Is there such a think as 'too much light'? For example, I have a 55 gal tank, and I am upgrading to MH... Now originally, I was going to go with 2 250 watts, but 400 watts are pretty much the same price. Now, heat and cost aside, is there any reason NOT to go with 2 1000 watt bulbs?

I remember when I entered this hobby, 8 - 10 watts per gallon was 'where you wanted to be'. Is this still true, or is a more the better game?

After all, as a fellow reefer said, 'In nature, these corals are under one big @$$ bulb'.

Thanks.

Ok I posted this yesterday but some how it got nuked and I didn't have time to re do it.
anyways the "watts per gal" is a reference that means nothing as if you have a 40 gal tank that is say 16" tall and 24 X 24 with a 250 watt light over it it will have 6.25 watt/gal. now if you take another 40 gal tank say 32" tall and 16X18 wide and long and put that same 250 watt bulb over it you still have 6.25 watt/gal, but do you think the amount of light reaching the bottom of the tank is the same?

as a basic guideline you can use 175 watt or 150HQI on tanks up to 18" tall, from 18" to 24" tall you can use 250 watt MH, for 24" and over you are looking at 250HQI or 400 watt MH.

Now this isn't to say you can use a 175 on a 24" deep tank, or a 400 on a 12" deep tank. I have a 400 set up on a temporary tank in the garage and it is only 16" deep I believe and the corals are lovin it.

now I personally run a 250 SE bulbs on a HQI ballast as it seams to pump out a better spread and a little more intensity than when you run a DE bulb, but the main reason for using a 250 watt SE bulb is the number of choices for bulbs.

Steve