light upgrade

[blackstrips85]

i want to get a new lighting system for my 46gal bow front. i want metal halide for it i found a fixture tha puts out 480w ,that will give me about 10w per gal in my aquarium ,would that be a prolbem. would that affect any of my coral. still i need to upgrade from my fixture that only puts out 192w only giving me about 4w per gal. so if anyone give me a heads up on that i would appreciate very much so. thanks

[discuspro]

480W I've never heard of that for a Metal Halide, hmm? 400W for me would be too much because I've got a single 250W on an octagon 42gal aquarium that is about 2' deep and that is working quite well. How deep will the tank be, I think that will make some difference.

By the way what brand tank are you speaking of? Just curious.

[blackstrips85]

i have an all glass tank, it is about 21.5 in deep

[blackstrips85]

i have some real nice pic of my tank i just have trouble loading the pic i can never post them

[discuspro]

Am I right that you said 480W? Where did you find it or what brand? What lights do you have on it now, VHO, T5? Also, using that much light will depend on what you want to grow. If sps, lps, hard corals then you will need the light but if you ask me I would go less than 400W but don't take just my opinion.

[discuspro]

Just thought of something else important to consider, which is temperature increase. That much watts over that tank, I'm guessing un-chilled, would probably raise the water temp too high

[blackstrips85]

yes 480w 2-175w metal halide bulbs 2- compact fluorescent 65W bulb actinic blue. all that i i am run on the tank is a192w coralife power compact fixture. i am growin clam, hard corals, Polyp, Mushroom, and Soft Corals and they are all doing great but i know i need to upgrade soon

[blackstrips85]

i have had my tank for about 1yr and 3 months

[discuspro]

Okay, now I get it. That doesn't sound too bad actually. Do you have to do the two 175W or are you able to do one 250W?

[gjuarez]

For a tank with those dimensions I think you would do better with 2x175 than a single 250w. Its 36" long right? The wattage added up to 430w, but thats not the important thing. It doesnt matter how many gallons you have per gallon, I would go with watts per square foot instead. GOod luck with it, I am sure the corals will like the change.