lots of watts

i have a post in this subject already about my MH lighting over heating my tank. watch a video about lighting and i found out i have 3X the watts needed for a reef tank if u go by the 3x - 5x per gal. i have a odyssea 716w MH for a 55gal. i live in OK so its starting to get hot and havent started useing the aircondtioners yet but the temp of the tank get to around 90 degrees. the bulbs in this light r 2 250w de hqi 15000k and 4 54w actinic. now my questions r should i get a lower watts bulbs for the MH or change out 2 of the t5 bulbs? if i just use the t5 lights i should b good for a reef tank. i just bought the best lighting i thought would b the best for what i wanted to do. me and the wife next year want to get a 250gal 300gal tank so this lighting may work for that. this is my 1st shot at saltwater so im not going to give up too fast .

 

Ya 90 deg is way to hot, the 3-5 watt isn't something you hear much about anymore. As long as you don't see bleaching in your corals etc I wouldnt worry too much about having too much light. You could drop the T5's if you wanted too. 2x 250 watt MH is plenty for a 55g imo. As for your water reaching such high temp, (for poop people like myself) I would buy a little desk fan from wal-mart, target etc and have it blowing on the surface of the water on the top of your tank to keep the temp down. That's what I have and it works awesome, especially with the heat here in Vegas, it does the job! I have mine on a digital timer in comes on every hour for 5 min which actually makes my heater run alittle more to keep the temp at 78-79.

 

yea i have 2 fans hanging off the side to keep the temp down. so what u r saying is the t5 lights arent needed? i dont have corals yet but want some. and i read that the colors of the lights help?

 

Yes you don't need the T5's imo The 2x 250watt MH is plenty, but like I said IMO. I'm sure others could and will have there own opinion. As for color, a 20k bulb will give you the best color(more blueish then 10k or 14k bulbs) if you want nice color but will be alittle slower in growth. If it was my setup I would go with 1x 20k bulb and 1x 10k bulb.

 

kool then no t5 lighting and 2x250w bulbs. then i wasted alittle money then? but when i grow into a bigger tank i should b golden.

 

If the T5HO have individual reflectors you could use them alone with the right combination of bulbs.

 

Yeah, that is a lot of light for a 55g. More isn't always better and I think the MHs or T-5s alone would be plenty. Actually, the MHs alone could even be a bit much for some corals.

As for the heat, it sounds like your running an open top and fans? Are the fans pointed at the surface of the water? This will cause evaporation and can cool the tank considerably. If you stick with the MHs you may need to do this anyways. With the T-5s it's tougher to tell, but T-5s don't produce nearly the heat of MHs, so, if you go with just T-5s, it's less likely to be an issue.

Also, how high do you have the MHs, I find 10" or more above the water is preferable for heat issues. I have a Lumen-bright reflector, which allows me to have mine about 18" above the water, so heat at that point is quite nominal.

If you can't get the temp below about 83 max with the methods described above, you may want to think about a chiller. IME, very rarely is that necessary however. Usually, there are less expensive ways to accomplish this.