is 250W SE MH too much for 2ft cube?

[drewy]

sorry, got a question.

1.is a 250W SE MH an overkill for a 2ft cube tank???

assuming that most of the inhabitants are lps.....and a couple of sps??

2.does the 250W SE need a uv glass??? or is the bulb already coated with UV protection??

if it is, is it adequate??

thanks

[reef2]

250w for 2 footer sps+lps mix is good. depending on yr reflector, 1 single bulb can only cover 2 ft wide.

SE bulb is uv coated.

[drewy]

thanks man.

BTW, can tell me:

1. where to get 250W SE 10000K bulb(what brand u recommend??BLV??)?

2. where to get a suitable ballast??

3. where to get the reflector(just a simple metal sheet type)??

after reading the MH threads, tot of DIY one myslef.

thanks

[KingFish]

Do you have an efficient chiller? Do keep in mind 250w will heat up your water pretty fast.

In a 2ft tank, parameter and temperature changes are less forgiving.

[[d]3v|L]

thanks man.

BTW, can tell me:

1. where to get 250W SE 10000K bulb(what brand u recommend??BLV??)?

2. where to get a suitable ballast??

3. where to get the reflector(just a simple metal sheet type)??

after reading the MH threads, tot of DIY one myslef.

thanks

think you can get them from EYE Lighting.

[drewy]

Do you have an efficient chiller? Do keep in mind 250w will heat up your water pretty fast.

In a 2ft tank, parameter and temperature changes are less forgiving.

thats the thing lor,

im gonna leave the top of my hood open, dan fix an exhasut fan below the MH bulb. dat 2 more fans to cool the water.

u think its enuff??

i know the evaporation rate will be damn jialat.....

but chiller for a 2ft cube,is it cost effective???me got not much space also,mum gonna squeeze my neck liao.

are there 100W SE 10000k bulbs??

[Dispar_Anthias]

thats the thing lor,

im gonna leave the top of my hood open, dan fix an exhasut fan below the MH bulb. dat 2 more fans to cool the water.

u think its enuff??

i know the evaporation rate will be damn jialat.....

but chiller for a 2ft cube,is it cost effective???me got not much space also,mum gonna squeeze my neck liao.

are there 100W SE 10000k bulbs??

there are no 100watt version but there is definately 150watts Mh

[Dispar_Anthias]

sorry, got a question.

1.is a 250W SE MH an overkill for a 2ft cube tank???

assuming that most of the inhabitants are lps.....and a couple of sps??

2.does the 250W SE need a uv glass??? or is the bulb already coated with UV protection??

if it is, is it adequate??

thanks

You can keep almost fully a sps tank

[drewy]

there are no 100watt version but there is definately 150watts Mh

heehee,sorry about that,i meant 150W.

but are there 10000k SE for 150W????

[[d]3v|L]

think there is.. the 10KK can be easily found in 250w SE version. There are more choice of 10KK in 150W DE

[yazid]

Usually a cube tank is taller. 250W can reach the bottom.

[Wei]

thats the thing lor,

im gonna leave the top of my hood open, dan fix an exhasut fan below the MH bulb. dat 2 more fans to cool the water.

u think its enuff??

i know the evaporation rate will be damn jialat.....

but chiller for a 2ft cube,is it cost effective???me got not much space also,mum gonna squeeze my neck liao.

are there 100W SE 10000k bulbs??

Hi Drewy,

Even with the exhaust fan, you are going to have a hard time to achieve 26-27 degrees using 250 MH.

Some problem you might face which is not gd for yr corals.

1)Temperature swing.

2)Salnity swing.

These is one of the 2 important factor that will greatly affect the health of the corals in the long run.

Especially if u are keeping SPS & LPS.

Go with the SE bulbs as the UV will not be that high as compared to DE.

Cheers!

Wei

[drewy]

thanks man

then wat about a 150W??

is a 150W 20kk suffiecient for 2ft cube??? the temperature wont be as high rite??

one more thing, does 20kk mean its twice as hot as 10kk??

or does it just refer to the light spectrum???

thanks

[Wei]

Hi Drewy,

150W will give out lesser heat but a MH is still a MH. The amt of heat it give off is still alot.

The difference between a higher kelvin bulb is the colour.

10K give u a crisp white.

14K give u crisp white with a tint of blue.

20K is like actinic.

Lower kelvin means higher PAR than higher kelvin.

Lower kelvin means more red spectrum than higher kelvin with more blue spectrum.

FIrst, just get a chiller to stablise yr tank temp.

THen for lights, you can consider 250W 10K with FL/T5 actinic. Or 1 150W 20K & 1 150W 10K.

U can basically keep any light demanding corals.

Wei