New to MH

[Truebluereefs]

I've been running T5HO lights foe the past 8 year, I just got MH yesterday,to run over my 40 gallon aquarium.
The tank only can hold 20 gallons of water, at 8 inches. The tank is sitting no the floor.
how high should I have my lights?
What's the best corals to place in the tank to have them grow as well as giving them color?

I'm sure that I will have more latter on.

 

[Mrfresh]

What's the watts on that?

 

[Truebluereefs]

The fixture has 2 X 150w w/ 2x 420 actinic 54W

 

[Truebluereefs]

The light is also 48" and the tank is 36" long

 

[bct15]

That's a lot of light for that tank

 

[Truebluereefs]

What was the plan have a lot of light to get corals to grow and color up really well, the tank is my grow our system for my store

 

[kes]

Plenty of light, I would hang at least 10" above water level

 

[Truebluereefs]

It's funny I posed the same question on two other forums one they say its " way to much light" the other one "you can grow any coral you want to"

I would have to agree with the I can grow any coral I want, it j use depends on how high I have the light from the water.

Would haveing the the light only 10" above the water make the 8"of water evaporate faster?

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

Having your light close to the water line can have an impact on the evaporation rates and cause it to evaporate faster.

FWIW, I ran my 55 reef tank with X 2 250 watt MH and X 4 96 watt power compacts and had a mixed reef. Now, this was a bit too much light. I had to be very strategic with coral placement or I would burn corals. If it becomes to be to much light for your corals, you can make a screen top and add extra layers to create a barrier for the light to shine through. Just a thought.

 

[DSP]

I would hang it at least 10 inches also.what type of bulbs are you using?its alot of light make sure you acclimate corals slowly.I like have more then enough light on my tanks to so I like what your doing.i know quite a few people running 400 watt halides on there 40 breeders