Three questions about lighting??

[odoprelude]

Okay, I finally got the lighting setup and I think I might have gone a little overboard. I recently picked up a 400w mh retrofit and I already have 110w pc 50/50. I figured I will switch the 50/50 to straight atinic and probably take it out of the hood that it is in and rig it up in the canopy that I'm currently eyeing.

Now, If I place the 400w in the center of the canopy (the bulb is huge!!! I mean like probably a foot long!) Would this be the optimal position? I have a center brace there and was wondering about the shadows that would cast...

Question 2# Is this too much light for a 55g? (510w)

Question 3# I have Frogspawn coral that is doing great under the current light and a waving hand xenia. The two are halfway up the rock wall... where should I move these to under these lighting condition? I also have gsp in two places, one closer to the top and one on the bottom of the tank.

Thanks again! :dance:

[H.I.D. KEVIN]

....WHEN I got my MH set up, I researched the subject here on RC first, and I found that most suggested that you have 1 MH bulb per 2 ft. of tank lenth. I think!!
...The over all watts was less clear. I have read some interesting threads about the watts subject, and some very interesting points were made about this subject and about how far the bulbs are from the water and the corals........

.....I went with 2 250MH and 2 VHO bulbs for my 4 ft. long tank..........My reef is in the very beginning stages, so I can't comment on how perfect my choices are for the reef. But, it sure looks good to me!!

Good luck.......Kevin.......OVER.......

[Jamesurq]

with 1 MH light, you have 2 choices.

1 - buy another one and put one on either side of the center brace. Is 2 400W MH too much? some would say there's no such thing as too much.

2 - get a parabolic reflector (I believe that's the name of it). This will reflect the bulb such that the shadow is minimized - not gone, but minimized. If you do put this one in the middle, you'll want to put it high up as to disperse the light enough or you'll have one bright spot in the middle and darkness on the sides. Also - laying some ceramic tile on the center brace should help absorb some of the massive amounts of heat that could potentially melt your center brace.

Best bet - return the 400 and get 2 X 250 as Kevin has.

[odoprelude]

Can't take it back.. bought it on ebay... (56.00 for ballast, socket and 10,000 k bulb...whew...) But the bulb is almost a foot long!!! Is this common for a 400w to be this large? Where should I move the coral? Thanks for the idea of the ceramic tiles on the center brace though, I was getting worried about that...

[Jamesurq]

can you post a pic? A foot long? Are you exaggerating? I only have 175 watter german 10ks and they're nowhere near a foot, more like 6 inches.

[Glenntessmer]

foot long is about right. Ushio 250W are about that size.
The 400W could be place slightly off center. This would make one side of the tank brighter but your could keep deeper water corals on the "dim" side and shallow water on the "bright" side.
I had 2x175W MH + VHOs on a 36x18x18 - Corals/inverts didn't seems to mind that much light.