7 watts per Gallon SPS?

[REEF-ER]

i have a 25g tank and just purchased a 175watt M.H. that will give me 7watts per gallon is it enuff for SPS? i have a coral life 10k bulb with no actintic??? also will 2 maxi-jet 900 be a over kill on circulation for a 25g SPS tank???

 

[2poor2reef]

I run 250w iwasaki mh on my 15g sps and I feel I have barely enough juice for acropora and pocillopora. My pavona sp. wouldn't need that much light. So it's gonna depend on the specific species you are going to keep. In terms of water circulation I run 60 turns per hour on my tank and I have found that water movement is extremely important for sps. If anything I think you are low on your planned water movement. I'm running three times that on my tank and wouldn't turn down the flow for anything. My opinion only.

 

[whirley]

I agree with 2poor2reef, for the most part.

what is the GPH on the Maxi-Jet?

SPS need a ton of light, IMHO. It also depends on the type of sps you plan on keeping.

Whirley

 

[REEF-ER]

maxi-jet 900=900g.p.h. so 2x900= 1800 g.p.h. on a 25g tank???? the M.H. fixture has no actintic so i got a 10k bulb, what bulbs do you use? is the 10k the right choice with no actintic? i want to keep acropora i have seen some beatuiful colors and want to keep some. what about clams? maxima??

 

[2poor2reef]

That's where you're making yor error reef-er. The maxi-jet 900 puts out only about 230 gph to my knowledge. That's a huge difference to what you quoted. Someone who has the box/instructions can hopefully confirm this. I could be wrong but I don't think so.

 

[Carpentersreef]

Maxijets are rated in liters/hour. Divide by 4.

 

[skull]

maxi-jet 900 does not =900g.p.h. it like @ 100 something or 200 only. the highest maxi is a 1200 which is at 295 or 296 gph. u can do something like this: get 2 1200s and make it shoot each other. or use the ones u have now and add more if u need to. HTH

 

[REEF-ER]

my main concern is the lighting not the current, current is the cheap easy part lighting is not cheap, is 175watts M.H. cool for acro's?? also is 10k bulb the right choice for 175w with no actintic?

 

[howie099]

It is a good start. If it not enough lower the light or raise the coral higher. The Maxi-jet 900's are rated at 230 gph.

It is all a matter on how you like the looks of your corals. Remember though the higher the kelvin rating the lower amount of lums your bulb puts out.

I have 400w Iwasaki and 95w VHO Antic over my 30g and I should be able to keep about any coral I like.

If it is not enough go out and buy a 400w or 250w MH system

 

[REEF-ER]

anybody else, all opinions please

 

[monkeyboy]

Personally i'm not too thrilled w/ coralife's 10k lamps. Thru the experience of others i would go with Aqualine's 10k lamp. I've heard both good and bad about blue-line's. You can very well keep acropora under 175's and have extremely beautiful colonies of blue and purple acropora growing like mad! But remember, the bluer the lamp is the less PAR you get out of it. HTH

 

[davelin315]

Start high, and lower them slowly until they're as close as you want them. When I was using MH, I hung mine a couple of feet above the tank in a canopy. By the way, I used 3 175W MHs on my 125 with 2 40W actinics, and my 2nd time around with sps using PCs seems to be more successful (although I'll probably combine the 2 sources of lighting for 1101W of lighting total down the line when I decide to dismantle my MH fixtures and retrofit them to my PC fixture).

 

[arnjer]

I have just started to keep sps....just remember also when you lower the light that you don't raise your temp on that small of a tank too much and also watch you alk and ph and calcium.

Jerry

 

[REEF-ER]

great thats what i wanted to hear, i want some acros so bad, i have never kept SPS, but i have read alot on them and im ready to start, i get my M.H. tommorow, im excited i wont sleep tonight lol, how high above the water do you suggest i mount them?

 

[REEF-ER]

i will closely monitor temp. i have a digital thermometer i will check it often, my tank has been running over a year, so all my paramiters are great.im just switching to 175 M.H. because i want SPS ( colorful acros ) also, if the higher the bulb rating the lower the PAR, how does DR.MAC achieve such beautiful SPS acros, with 20K bulbs? mine is a 10k and i will have no supplemental lighting.

 

[RichMacys]

He uses 400w 20000K bulbs that put out a lot of light even though it doesnt look like it. If I sat under them for a few hours youd no doubt have a tan or sunburn. By the way 175w of light is more than enough to start with on a 25 gallon tank. You can grow montipora, yellow scroll, Hydnophora, fire coral, and I think pocillopora would even do nice up top. I would suggest getting a couple of normal output ACT03 bulbs just for supplementing looks but they are not needed as any MH above 6500k will give enough of every spectrum of light needed for coral growth. HTH

 

[REEF-ER]

i cant add actintic thats why its a 10k 175w, its already a pre-made fixture with 1 M.H. or else i would, were can i get some of these really colorful SPS? does greg hiller sell frags? what his website or home page?