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Lighting

H

Hirobo

Sorry If I have posted this before but I just can't remember. I have a 40 gallon Rect 36" long and 20" deep. right now I have leathers, mushrooms, and afew sps and lps. I have a 150 watt MH mogul and a 20" pc atinic bulb. what I was wondering, if that would be enough light for the tank, or should I go with 2 175 watt MH bulbs on each side. right now I have the MH in the center of the tank. it looks bright but not quite sure.

Thanks
 
D

danthemanj

FRAG SWAP VENDOR
Do you have any sand in the tank? If so, how many inches deep. The 2 x 175 MH will give you more choices than a single 150 but have you considered T5 lighting for your setup?
 
H

Hirobo

danthemanj said:
Do you have any sand in the tank? If so, how many inches deep. The 2 x 175 MH will give you more choices than a single 150 but have you considered T5 lighting for your setup?
Click to expand...

yes I do have sand it's only 1/2" deep though. I really like the look of the MH are you thinking i should use the 1 MH and then go with t5 to make up the difference?
 
magic

magic

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
You can go with a Outer Orbit 36" fixture - 2 150MHs and 4 39w T5s,the best of both worlds!

Bob
 
MadReefer

MadReefer

Staff member
NJRC Member
Moderator
I'm not sure but I think the deeper the sand the bed the closer the coral will be to the light. A 4" sand bed would bring everything closer compared to a 1/2" sand bed or bare bottom.
 
D

danthemanj

FRAG SWAP VENDOR
The Lumenarc Mini will definitely disperse the light more but you will lose quite a bit of light from front to back of the tank due to its depth. In addition, you would need a higher wattage bulb due to the very fact that you will be dispersing the light more. If you want to go the Metal Halide route, I would recommend 2 x LumenBrite Minis. You will be able to use 150/175 watt bulbs and it will put more light into your tank than a simple reflector running 25O watt bulbs
 
mfisher2112

mfisher2112

I have two of those fixtures. The only complaints I have had so far are that the bulbs tend to go after about 6 months or so, and they have 3 switches but only 1 power cord, so there is no way to maintain the "dusk to dawn" kinda lighting, unless you are there to manually flip the switches.

I have found them to work pretty well on smaller tanks. Dunno about their bigger fixtures.
 
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