How much light

[Rscomia]

How much light is recommended for a 90 gallon reef if I want to house anything from snails to hard coral? I found one with 2 250 watt 10 K metal halides Will this be to much for some corals?

 

[melosu58]

You should be good to go with those. Moved to General hardware and equipment discussion.

 

[Combest]

You should be good to go with those. Moved to General hardware and equipment discussion.

10 watts per gal

 

[Rscomia]

Can I have to much light I have heard of corals being bleached??

 

[Combest]

From what I understand is that bleaching happens when the coral doesn't get enough lightenergy to feed on, therefor losing it's own pigment. This happens all the time when people buy very photo synthetic corals and only have regular lighting! I'm getting ready to switch over to LEDs from Cree lighting, as soon as I do I will keep sps, clams etc

 

[cmor1701d]

Yes, bleaching happens from too much light. You need to photo-acclimate corals from the light they are coming from to the lighting of your tank. You can start by placing them on the sand or low down in the tank and slowly raising them over a period of weeks. You can also place about 5 sheets of screen material over the tank and remove one sheet per week.

 

[Rscomia]

So do you think with 500 whats of metal halides ill be alright doing it like that or should I try to get a little less light?

 

[uscamaro]

Those will be fine. You may want to invest in a chiller though because the water temp can get pretty high with halides.