lighting on a 20 g

hello i was wondering if a 250 watt metal halide is to much for a 20 gallon tank i want to keep mostly hard corals ?

 

Welcome to 3reef

With the depth of the tank you could use a 175W or 150W MH and save some money on the purchase and energy.

 

I don't know much about halides, never had one. I do however think that would probably be a bit much and the heat would probably be an issue. Me...I like LED's and for a 20 I'd go with a few Par 30 bulbs. Should be able to grow anything. The only debate about LED vs halides that I'm aware of is growth rate, but in a 20g, that shouldn't really be a consideration as space is limited anyway.

 

Personally, I'm a big fan of T5HO fluorescent lighting, and I've seen a few much larger tanks with SPS corals under T5s that have excellent growth. A 24" 4-lamp fixture with Giesemann or ATI bulbs should be all you need for a standard 20g tank.

 

thanks for your thoughts guys and mr. bill i looked into t5 ho and found this light do you think it would be good for zoas and corals of that sort 24" Aquarium T5 HO Light 96W LED Reef Fish Odyssea CE | eBay ive herd good and bad about this company and i noe you get wat you pay for but for the price its kinda hard to pass it up.

 

that light should be good for zoos, and if you are looking at odyssea products aquatraders has cheap prices and with free shipping sometimes, like you said there are mixed reviews some people love what they get but then sometimes you hear horror stories about them, good luck.

 

hello ;D

I have a 20 gallon and can say that t5's work well but buy a better fixture the money is there but its just not as good as others for a few bucks more. I currently have LED's over mine and love them they are great. just my 2 cents ;D

 

If you have the money I would def look into getting LED's, I won some Orphek PR-25's and I absolutely love the way they look on my tank, great shimmer no heat low energy and I love the look of them