max wattage over 55gal?

[exodus]

I'm thinking about my lighting situation once again for after I get my CO2 situation under control. The plan is to upgrade my 2.5wpg of ODNO lighting to something a bit more once I get the CO2 injection setup, which should be within the next week or so. After that I plan to go heavily planted.

I was at work yesterday and saw that they were getting ready to throw out 5 warehouse metal halide fixtures, so I snatched them up. 4x 250w, 1x 175w. I plan on taking the reflectors off, remoting the ballasts and using them... not in a warehouse.

I already have a 175mh, so from lighting to pick from, I have 4x250 and 2x175. I'm thinking two fixtures would light my 55 wonderfully, but should I go with 300w (5.5wpg, 2x175w), 425w (7.7wpg, 1x175, 1x250) or 500w (9wpg, 2x250)?

Sounds like a lot of wattage to me.. maybe I'm crazy trying to put metal halides over a freshwater tank?

Any suggestions would be great!

 

[ringfinger]

My first thought is that you could make a lot of money selling them to a reefer!

MH over a 55 seems like a lot to me. Maybe if you had a 125 or 300 gallon setup. Hopefully someone else will chime in that has more experience with this than I do.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

That will be too intense for most plants, unless you give it some distance above the tank. When I was running 520W CF over my 75G, I could not keep up with the dosing. It was like trying to jump into a NASCAR in the middle of a race. Just can't do it, at least I couldn't. Now if I had more time available, and really learned more about plant uptake, lighting, etc, then maybe. But currently, it's out of my realm. Just a little insite for you to think about as you create your plan.

 

[exodus]

That will be too intense for most plants, unless you give it some distance above the tank. When I was running 520W CF over my 75G, I could not keep up with the dosing. It was like trying to jump into a NASCAR in the middle of a race. Just can't do it, at least I couldn't. Now if I had more time available, and really learned more about plant uptake, lighting, etc, then maybe. But currently, it's out of my realm. Just a little insite for you to think about as you create your plan.

Hmm.. in light of that, 2 more ODNO fixtures it is!