Lighting for nano question????

[Raysxb]

I have a 12 gallon nano. It has built in filtration. I added a protein skimmer and heater. I plan on using it as reef tank. I currently have 17lbs of gulf live rock in it.

So, here are my questions, I wanna add my 150 watt metal halide retro kit into the nano. The bulb is a 14k double pin. Is this gonna be too much lighting for this volume of water?

Some have said that it will be too much and others have told me that it'll be fantastic???? What do you think?

 

[slitherbomb]

How high above the tank will it be? Remember, too much light can kill coral.

 

[Raysxb]

I was thinking about installing it in the hood. But if youre saying it will turn out bad then I will look into other methods. My only concern is that it only has 18 watts with the factory power compact lighting and I was told that this was not enough to support corals.

I also have a 55 gallon that im setting up with 2 x 250 watt halides. So this would be too much as well? Now it is a seaclear acrylic with overflow, sump, and odyssea protein skimmer. Same thing?

 

[slitherbomb]

How high are both your tanks? If the 55g is standard height,(18") then the mh would be good. For the 12g, I would look into LED lighting.

 

[Raysxb]

Standard height on the 55. So the two 250 halides would not be too much for the 55? They will be sitting about 6 inches above the water.

For the nano, I have an extra marineland led ballast than came with my 30 gallon halfmoon tank. It has a bunch of plcc2 leds both blue and white. Not sure the actual wattage. no where on any documentation that I have seen tells you the wattage.

I can just move the 150 watt halide onto my 30 tall. It has an overflow, acrylic sump, odyssea skimmer too. That should work.

I have never done corals before, only fish. So its all new to me.

I have the following tanks running currently:

3- 55 gallon tanks (1 will be a reef)
1- 50 gallon tank
1- 30 gallon tall (will be a reef)
1- 30 gallon half moon
1- 12 gallon nano (will be a reef)
1- 10 gallon hospital tank
1- 5 gallon octagon tank

 

[slitherbomb]

You have a lot of tanks! Lol and sounds good. I only have 2 saltwater tanks and I'm setting up a third one that will be a reef.

 

[ricardo48]

You were told wrong. I run a 15w PC light on my 5g nano tank and I sustain all soft corals easily. I think 18w would be fine on your tank for basic corals.

 

[ricardo48]

Remember its really PAR that matters not Watts per gallon. My 5 gallon has such small volume of what and low water depth that my 15watt light is very effective

 

[Raysxb]

I have a marineland led setup i called them to get the wattage today. The told me it is 60 milliwatts???? But someone else told me that led lighting is measured in lumin no watts. No im really confused. Lol

 

[slitherbomb]

Yeah LEDs are measured in lumens.

 

[carey]

But the led's themselves still have wattage, don't they? Both of my PAR38 nano bulbs are 3w each. ? I think from my research and reading most LED fixtures are only 1w bulbs usually unless you get into the more $$ ones.

I know that 36W of PAR38 light was too much for my 4g pico, the 15w PAR38 bulb seems to be just right so far. My corals also grew under a 32w CF bulb.

 

[Ratrob57]

I have a marineland led setup i called them to get the wattage today. The told me it is 60 milliwatts???? But someone else told me that led lighting is measured in lumin no watts. No im really confused. Lol

Marineland is telling you the electrical draw but LEDs don't convert electricity to light output the same way flourecents do that is why you look for the lumen output or par rating for LEDs