Is this too much lighting?

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Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Dec 6, 2003
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71
Location
Glendale, CA
I have a 100 Gallon Glass tank that messures 5 feet across and 24 inches deep. I am getting 3 x 250 10,000k watt metal halides and 2 x 110 watt 03 actinics. This will give me 970 watt, which is 9.7 watts per gallon. I want to keep all sort of corals, high light, low loght and everything inbetween. I heard that too much light will turn all corals white, LOL that rhymes. Is this true, and also will this make a huge spike in my electricty bill? I think they will be on for like 12 hours a day. Any suggestions on what I should change, or is this a good setup as far as lighting is concernd.

100 Gallon Glass tank
180 lbs of LR
150 lbs of Sand (3 inches deep) 24 inches is total depth of aqurium minus the 3 inch sand bed so like 21 inch deep aqurium, if that make a difference.

What do you guys think? TIA, and BTW I love this WEBSITE!!!!!!!
 
I believe that will be perfect... My personal opinion I would have probably went with 400w halides but 250's will work quite nicely.. FWIW I have 2x250w MH and 220w actinics on my 55gal tank... so your not much more than that on a 100gal..

I think that with those lights you should be set with just about most everything.. however I would possibly consider maybe 1 20k bulb and 2 10k bulbs.. Personal preference as I light the blueish color of the water..

also will this make a huge spike in my electricty bill?
well my electricity bill is the same as it was last year.. with one difference.. we were using baseboard heat and this year we havent.. The halides heat the house quite a bit.. I was told that I personally use twice the amount of power for my 2bdrm apt as a friend with a 4bdrm house.. me 1100KWH per month.. him 500KWH I believe...

HTH,
James
 
This will give me 970 watt, which is 9.7 watts per gallon.

WPG (iffy at best) doesn't apply to MH.

My personal opinion I would have probably went with 400w halides but 250's will work quite nicely..

I would have done the 400W too, but I think the 250s will work.
 
also will this make a huge spike in my electricty bill?

Pu;; out your bill (to see how much your getting charged per kilowatt, click the calculator link at the top of the page in the navagation links, there is a claculator that can tell you exactly how much your spending on your tank.
 
Thats pretty close too.. It was only off my a few dollars or so.. LMAO I spend about 1000.00 per year on Power just for the tank lmao.. WEEEEEEEEEE

james
 
Actually Mix bulb is a really good idea. I have notice that 6500k bulb work really good with some coral. 1-6500k bulb and two 10,000 I think will give you better coral growth and your two actinic bulbs will give you the blueish light people like.
With the bleaching concern, you need to start you corals low since most distributer and LFS don't use Halides on their systems and the corals are not use to this intense light. As long as you do it over a period of two weeks you should be find.
Just remember that corals don't like to be move a whole lot in a short period of time so the longer you move it the better.
 
Strictly Marine said:
With the bleaching concern, you need to start you corals low since most distributer and LFS don't use Halides on their systems and the corals are not use to this intense light..

My LFS has all halides above his coral, so could i start off with anyone?

Strictly Marine said:
Just remember that corals don't like to be move a whole lot in a short period of time so the longer you move it the better.

What exactly do you mean by this please explain in detail.

So you are saying that 1 x 250 wat 6,500k and 2 x 250 wat 10,000k and 2 actinics would be the right combonation? or not nesseserily thr "right" one but a good setup? what do you guys think on the bulbs?
 
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