Metal Halide & 44G. Pentagon HELP PLEASE!

[gupebreedr]

Hiya Folks,

I'm a newbie to Reef Central and I must say it's a great site and I've already learned a great deal from all of you. Thanks!

I'm in the process of setting up a 44 gallon pentagon as a reef tank and am somewhat befuddled about which lighting to use. I've never dealt with MH before. I have spent the better part of this past week surfing the various threads, websites and vendors in hopes of finding answers to my questions. It seams the more I read about MH lighting the more confused I get.
Due to the unique size and shape of the 44G pentagon, I've pretty much decided that I should go with a MH pendant lighting system. Here are the dimensions of this tank, 22Lx22Wx24H. Eventually as the tank matures, I would like to know that I have sufficient lighting for whatever I might want, including a clam. This tank will have a glass canopy.

What wattage MH pendant would foot the bill for this setup? Are PC's needed? Any suggestions on companies to contact or specific pendants that I should look into.


Thanks in advance for you help, it is greatly appreciated.

Rob

:confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:

[Toutouche]

Gupebreeder,

[welcome]


It seams the more I read about MH lighting the more confused I get.

Heh heh! It only gets more confusing!! Lighting is one of those topics that belong with Religion and Politics!!
Sorry, I have no experience with your type/shape of tank, so hopefully someone else will chime in here.
I wasjust curious as to why yo will b covering it with a glass? Usually, it's best to leave it open for gas exchange, evaporation, lighting etc...

[piercho]

I use a 250W Iwasaki in a Spiderlight reflector on my 36"X18"X25" deep tank, and that is enough light, IMO, to meet your goals. Since your footprint is tighter than mine, I'd consider a reflector that throws a tighter pattern. Read this article by R. Harker: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/oct2002/review.htm
And, for mogul bulb reflectors, an article by Joshi & Marks: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/mar2003/feature.htm

"Are PC's needed?"
Are you asking if additional actinic light is needed? For 6500K and 10KK MH, most people prefer additional light in the 420-470 nM range (violet and blue) to bring out flourescent colors. Radium Blue bulbs ("20KK") peak at 460 nM, so, they usual are not supplemented. Do a search on the author Sanjay Joshi, and you will come up with many articles about the spectral qualities and intensity of different MH bulbs.

My personal choice, if i had your tank, would keep a clam, and intend to use a pendant, would be this PFO fixture: http://www.pfolighting.com/new%20pfoAq/AQFrames.htm
Using a 150W 6500K Iwasaki on an ANSI M102 ballast (PFO ballast AQ1-150MH-120V ), and two 28W blue PC bulbs, sold by CSL as 7100K "super actinic". Mount the light fairly close to the water, and ditch the glass cover on the tank.

[wizardgus®]

I have a 44g. Pent. for a FW tank. I keep eyeballing it for a reef, I think it should make a cool reef. I keep getting out voted though.

A 250W in a spider reflector should do a good job on that tank. But as previously stated you will want to lose the glass top, especially on that tank. Your surface to volumn ratio is pretty low with that tank and gas exchange and cooling will be a challenge otherwise. It will be an easy tank to use eggcrate for a top so that is a plus. Make sure you have good water movement with some surface agitation and you'll be good.

Just as an example, for ours as a FW, we had to add a powersweep power head to keep water quality up.

[gupebreedr]

Hey guys,

Thanks for your input and suggestions. I will check out the links provided.
The main two reason why I was considering a glass canopy was to hold down the loss of water due to evaporation. I live in Florida and run the AC 9 month out of a year along with ceiling fans that run all year. Trust me here, the AC really sucks out the moisture.
The other reason for the canopy is I have three dogs running around my house. They are always bringing dust/dirt not to mention the amount of hair floating around. I have several FW tanks that do not have any types of covering that seams to be a magnet for dog hair. Hairballs are not pretty floating around in tanks. LOL.
I am planning of converting a Wet/dry filter into a refuge, would this help with the gas exchange? The refuge would be inside the wood stand which would help cut down on the dust, dirt and dog hair problem I have. In addition, I would be running two large HOB power filters (no media except for carbon when needed) along with one, maybe two internal PH's.

Thanks again and happy reefing!

Rob

:confused:

[wizardgus®]

The fuge will help with gas exchange, but not heat build-up. The eggcrate would help as far as the hair is concerned, but if you believe this is going to be a big problem I would look at building a canopy and installing fans that you could screen. You might get by with the glass, but I doubt it with that particular tank. Of course you can always change it later if you do.

Otherwise it sounds good. Be sure to update with pics later. Maybe if you get it looking good enough I can get my wife to give up her Guppies. :D

P.S. Evaporation is a good thing in a reef tank.

[raspberry]

Stephane (Toutouche) would consider my solution an abuse on my account (referring to another thread on Canreef), but I am using a Nova II from Giesemann on my 22x22x24 cube tank for seahorses and some coral. It is 150W, but I would use 250 for clams.

http://www.giesemann.de/GB_Giesemann.html

The tank is open top.

We very much light this setup, but it aint the cheapest - and my tank is oriented to seahorses, so the 150W is in support of the few soft corals I put in there.

[piercho]

When you drop the water out of the tank, down to the ref in the stand, won't you be using some type of surface-skimming overflow? This will pull the skum off the surface of the water.

My 65G is in a basement where it's usually not over 70 degrees, and I still had problems with overheating last summer. The powerheads (and the ref return pump, if it's submerged) are water heaters. IMO, you'll want to encourage evaporation to help cool your tank. If you use limewater ("kalkwasser") to make up the evaporation loss, this will help maintain your alkalinity and calcium levels in the tank.

The ref will definately improve your gas exchange, and may help with heat control.

[latazyo]

if he doesnt use a glass top, wont salt creep get all over and ruin his lights?

[wizardgus®]

Originally posted by latazyo
if he doesnt use a glass top, wont salt creep get all over and ruin his lights?

Not if it's set up right.

[Toutouche]

Rasberry,
Umm??? I'm not Stephane..... Stephane is Stephane. My name is Greg. ;)