400w MH too much for my LPS ???

Reef Man · #1 01/17/2006, 03:56 PM

Hey, I got a new MH (400w). Is it too much for may LPS.

Last year I was running a 150w HQI and now I have a 250 HQI DE 14k Hamilton, But I think I need more, so I got yesterday a 400w reeflux MH SE (I got a new ballast of course).

My tank is 80cm x 45 cm x 50cm tall.

I have:
2 Hammers
1 frogspawn
1 Finger leather
1 spaguetti
1 colt coral
1 galaxea
1 pavona
1 carpet anemone
3 leathers (sarco)
Ricordeas
Mushroms
palithoas
alot of GSP of different colors
Xenia elongata
Xenia umbrelatas
1 green sinularia

and 2 fishes

Is that light too much?
Please let me know.

lcheesman · #2 01/17/2006, 04:22 PM

IMHO that would be far too much light for the type of corals you are keeping. All of the corals you have should be perfectly happy under the 250 even thats high for 50cm mix of softies and LPS. Most of the corals you posses have been collected from 20 meters depth or more. 400 watts fine for some high light demand acros but for a mix of soft and LPS I would see that as overkill. You may not notice any problems straight away but it will become evident the corals have problems adapting to this intensity within a few weeks, months.

Reef Man · #3 01/17/2006, 04:46 PM

Hmmm, that is very interesting

I saw a tank with 400 with softies with more than 1 year without problems.

please let me know

dots · #4 01/17/2006, 07:10 PM

When moved my LPS from my 37 tall with 65 watt pc to a 75 with 150W DE HQI's........I burned everything!!! Expensive lesson on acclimation that it was. The euphyllias( hammers, frogspawn, torch) are VERY sensitive to photoshock, my shrooms fried to a crisp.

Anenome and xenia should be cool, clams and sps will love you.

Anything that is lower light, you will need to reduce your photoperiod and/or use the screen method to aclimate to the 400's or raise the lights super high and lower them weekly.

I am sure it can be done, as Reef Man says, but you will need to becareful with lowerlight things you put in from know on. Now I only say this, is because I still see bleaching in some of the stuff I put in, if I rush the acclimation. So I would imagine you would have that much and more with 400's. Just take your time I say and it will be cool

dots · #5 01/17/2006, 07:17 PM

Why did you think you needed to go from 150's to 250's, to 400's in the first place? With my short 75 and 150 HQI's it seems to be just great.

If you are having trouble with growth, it may be chemical warfare.
On second glance, you do have some aggressive corals in your tank. What do you think?

Reef Man · #6 01/17/2006, 07:23 PM

I had 150 and I donÂ´t like it, I change 3 times bulbs and no liked me.
then I switch to 250 and I didnÂ´t get any difference on the light I ws gotting.

So, I decide to go with a 400, but when I saw it, I doubt by the size of the bulb, and I think, I need to rethink If I really need to change to 400, so, here I am...

musty baby · #7 01/17/2006, 11:59 PM

Seems like I'm replying to everything twice... (reef discussion forum)

I started with a 75 and plan to go to about a 220 when I get a house, and built my lighting with that in mind. I have 800 watts of 10k SE metal halide on my 75, with one pane of glass and about 10 inches between the lights and water. I haven't had alveopora, favia, lobophyllia, or galaxea bleach out. I also have [counting] 13 types of mushrooms that haven't bleached. They didn't open too nicely at first, so I put them in my fuge for a few weeks under 260w of 14k and actinic PCs and then threw them back in the display after they opened up wide again and now they're happy as ever.

Ti · #8 01/18/2006, 02:03 AM

It won't be a problem.

Vamp75 · #9 01/18/2006, 03:32 AM

I think with the corals you are keeping, the the 400's would be way overkill. Use the money somewhere else, JMO.

llamart · #10 01/18/2006, 09:23 AM

I think the biggest issue you will see is introducing new tank mates. I only know of one LFS that actually has corals under a 400w system, and nothing is even for sale its a show tank...LFS's generally range from PC's to 150w MH. Some use 250's but regardless, anything will be stressed by being moved to a tank with 400w bulbs. You would probably have to drop the light exposure time to at least a minimum of 6 hours and slowly increase it over time with each new intorduction.

UNCFAN · #11 01/18/2006, 05:20 PM

Question to Sacramentodots: It looks like we have the same setup and I am considering going with LPS tank setup.

What is your photoperiod, thanks.

lemonhead · #12 01/18/2006, 06:07 PM

i have a 180gal lps tank with 2 400w 13k, evrything loves it.

dots · #13 01/19/2006, 01:46 AM

UNCFAN

When I first changed over and added it went to 3hrs of MH and worked it back up an hour a week with the actinics on 10 hrs +-. Right now, the MH are up to 6 and seems to be working out. To be honest, still playing with it.

I have some light loveing anenome, clam, and xenia
but need to watch burning the euphyllia, (notice small frags in my profile pics thats a burned hammer that I bleached, but is comming back just now after 3 months). Balancing act

Mattw2190 · #14 01/20/2006, 07:11 PM

I have my frogspawn and some zoanthids directly under a 10k 250de and things are fine. Soon I will be upgrading to 2X400 20k's and the tank size is a 65. The tanks depth is important when it comes to lighting it at 24" strong lighting is a must. My 250 is 4" above water level but when I upgrade to two 400 watts I'll have to keep them much higher. I don't think that a 400 watt will be too much for your lps and if it is you can always experiment with raising it.