Mobile Bay Reef Keepers

I have a 55 gl tank with Power Compacts. I am ready to add MH. I know 175 is probably what I need. Is there any reason not to go ahead with 250 watts or would it be detrimental in any way?

If you want full coverage... IMO you should go with 2 MH's. I believe the generic rule of thumb for halides is each one covers an average area of 2'x2'. Personally I think 175's are plenty from the results I have seen from other reefers.....

But no, it's hard to overdo it on lighting unless you plan on keeping alot of soft low light corals. You could always place those under shelves and in shadows though!

Two 175s, plenty.

Thanks for your help. There goes another $500.

To be honest with you it really depends on what you want to keep. I believe that 175's are ok but would rather use 250's for a SPS dominated tank. If you do not plan to keep SPS or only a few then DE 150 HQI would be a better choice. They do have about the same PAR as the 175's but would have lower operating costs and less heat transfer. I have a 400w with 2 VHO actinics and one 50/50. I have seen great coloration from prevously brown SPS and one does cover the tank well without a reflector. My 400 only runs 45 minutes at a time 4 times a day and have not seen any increase in tank temp yet. But if you have a center brace a single halide may not be the best choice.

Scott

i say go with the 250's cause if you ever wanna upgrade to a bigger tank, save yourself some money with lighting

I would do the 250's too. Never did I think that we would end up with a 500 gallon tank when we got back into this three years ago. At the time we bought a 29 with an eclipse hood. We then upgraded to a CSL Smartlite retro kit. After that came the 100 gallon with VHO's. Wasn't too long after we added MH's to both tanks.

Here we are now with 6 MH's and I wish all of them were 400's. Holy toledo it is depressing to think how much $$ we have spent.

My new motto in life..........."Do it right the first time!"

Elizabeth