20 Gl Tank Lighting w/ MH or T5 's ?

[Ekudl]

Hello All, any help here would be greatly appreciated,

I have a 20 Gl High reef tank with a 5 Gl Refuge setup and I used to have a 110 Watt PC fixture that died recently. I wanted to get more lighting anyways so I can keep any type of corals, Clams, SPS, etc. in the future.

There is a 24" combo Jalli 150Watt MH with 2 - 24W T5 bulb fixture available near me at a LFS
Hyperlink http://jallicorp.com/metalhalide.html
It comes with 2 Feet (stands) that mounts directly onto the tank. Thus giving about an 8 inch gap of room between light and water.

I tried another Jalli fixture today that was 24" long with 4 - 24Watt T5 bulbs. It just didn't seem any different than my old 110 Watt PC fixture.

I know I could probably build a custom hood and mount say a 70 or a 100 MH ballast but right now I'm not interested in building a custom hood.

Questions are:

1) Has anyone ever used these Jalli MH and T5 fixtures, and if so are they any good ?

2) Will the tank get too hot with only an 8 " gap beween 150Watt MH and 20 Gl's of water ? (I cannot mount the MH fixture high above my tank since it is in my office at work.)

3) I could buy a bigger 36" 4 - 39 watt T5 fixture. Will this get too hot as well ? Again MH is my preference for the rippling effect.

Sorry for the long thread.
Thank You

[Doug1]

I am not familiar with Jalli but the MH part sounds good. It appears there is a fan included in the deal, so temp should be managable, esp if office has AC. Beems like with the legs, you will get a lot of light spill unless the refector design is very good , FWIW

[mnreefgeek]

I did build my own hood, but here you go.

I to have a 20H that started out with 110wt pc. I currently am running 300 wt (2x150 10000) MH and 68wt pc. I use 2 4" Radio Shack fans in the hood and an IceProbe in my 5 gal sump to maintain a temp of around 80-82, summer day temp, in an unairconditioned house. My lights are only 8" from the water surface.

I am considering going to 1 250 wt XM and 1 150 10000. Not sure if I want to deal with that heat issue this next summer though. I know that keeping it cool in the winter will be no problem at least in my house.

[Ekudl]

Wow Doug1 and MNReefGeek you too are pretty light aggressive dudes, especially you MNReefGeek.

After I visited my LFS again I did decide to go with the 150 watt MH and T5 light fixture for my 20 Gl tank. The hyperlink again to it is http://jallicorp.com/metalhalide.html

It is a MUCH better design and setup compared to the previous Jalli 4 lamp T5 fixture I tried earlier in the week. Each T5 bulb and the 150 MH have their own reflector and the fixture is made of metal, not plastic. Although it was expensive, $550 including all bulbs, although I think it looks great on my reef tank and I can host now anything. Of course I am concerned about heat but I had it running for 3 hours today without any temp increase at all. It sits on 4 stands that keeps the fixture up about 6 inches off the tank.

So having this setup is not too much light then ? Is it common to have this much lighting, 198 Watts (150Watt MH plus 2 - 24 Watt T5 Atinic) ?

MNReefGeek, how could you possibly have 368 watts of power ? Isn't that way too much ? What do you keep in it ?
Are those IceProbs any good ? Do you have the optional Temp control device ?
If you like I may look at mounting on of those in my refuge for next summer.

Doug1, this fixture is on 4 feet (stands), what did you mean by "Beems". It does appear to be a good reflector design, so little spill off.

Thanks again,

Steve

[Ray1214]

My wife runs 8 PC bulbs on her fixture over a 29 gal tank. That equals out to 8 X 55 Watts = 440 Watts. There was a member in the Nano SIG which if I am not mistaken is running a 250 Watt MH on a 10 gal. (It may be 150 I can't remember). I think the only problem that I have with lighting is the heat. But lisa gets away with a Helios Enclosure and a Jalli Enclosure and leg stands. Then she uses a desk fan to blow across the lights.

Ray

[mnreefgeek]

368wt = 2 x 150wt MH, 1 x 55wt 03pc, 1 x 13wt 03 pc

No I don't use the temp controller. My house is pretty warm during the day time and I run my lights on a reverse cycle, so the Ice Probe never really cools to much. I think that it works OK. I would probably be better off getting another Probe or a bigger chiller next year, especially after the swapping out 1 of my 150s for the 250. That will be some serious heat, but won't it be pruty?

As for what I keep. I have about a dozen SPS frags, a frogspawn, open brain, some zoes, leather, buttons, and a carpet. 1 perc, 1 royal gramma, and 1 peppermint shrimp.