Lighting upgrade Questions??

I am wanting to upgrade my lighting and I had a few questions on which way to go and obviously saving money is a big concern. I have a 20 gallon long that is 30x12x12 and I am currently running a 15 coralife 50/50 Power Compact. I was thinking about switching to just metal halides but I really have no experience with them. The reason why is I want to get better coral growth and the ability to step up with what I can keep. My tank has been running for about 3 years and my growth has been a bit slower due to my current set up.

My questions are:

What size and output should I need for my 30 x 12 x 12 tank?

Where can I find the setup that I will need?

Should I upgrade?

Is it even worth switching to MH for a 20 gallon?

I cant really think of many questions right now still a lil late but I would appreciate any help.

I am in the process of getting a 75 gallon setup in the basement and I am trying to keep costs down as much as possible because I would like to have it up and running within the next couple months or at least have water in the tank. My plans as of now are to knock some sheetrock out seeting the tank flush with the wall in the pool table room overlooking the table. I am also going to clear out the storage room that backs up to using it as my fish room and hopefully setting up a frag tank as well. Its a big project and with christmas coming up its gonna get tight, but that is a little ways away and I will be sure to create a photo friendly and possibly video thread of my build but I will let yall know when I get there cause I am sure to be asking plenty of questions. Thank you again

 

You could do it with a 150 watt clip on MH lamp or pendant - the cover area for MH is about 2 ft
but this means you would have 3 inches at each on of the tank not very well lit up
but as this area is not normally populated with many corals its no loss IMO
My power heads take up more room than that each end so I cant keep light loving corals there anyway but shrooms and Zoas in the bottom corners of a set up like yours would be OK IMO

Temp may be an issue and as its a shallow tank - you could look at a 4 or 6 T5 light fixture - this will enable you to keep almost anything you want (someone may come on and say, No Steve, its not almost anything, it is anything! which would be helpful)

Steve

 

While nothing rivals halides in output, with such a shallow tank as yours, you might be better served with T5s. The beauty of T5s is their high performance and output, coupled with low energy consumption and little heat production. The only concern (in the opinion of some folks) is that they don't penetrate as deeply as halides do. With a 20L tank though, light penetration won't be a concern. Additionally, as Steve alluded to, you won't need a chiller with T5s, where you might need one with halides.

The choice is yours. Good luck either way.

 

thanks, I really appreciate it. I have thought about going with T5s but I cant really find anywhere that I can get them at a decent price, I understand that they are not gonna be cheap but I was thinking about getting those Nova's that you can eventually add together to expand it for when I get the bigger tank set up. I appreciate it though