stocking a nano reef

hey All,
just a quickie...

I have a 20gallon tank with two 400w Metal halide lamps. i was just wondering what type of fish, inverts and coral i could keep in there.


I do have another 3 foot tank that is already set up and running perfectly fine.
all comments will be appreciated

 

Hi DeepSea Diver

Bump for a MH expert

2 x 400 watt MH over a 20 - what are the tanks dimensions - if its 30 inches or less
then I believe 1 x MH should be adequate? and if I where going for 2 - then unless is a deep tank 250 watts would be OK - IMO

Steve

 

You could keep any type of coral under that lighting and any fish that doesn't get too big for the tank. I agree, one MH should be enough. I think 400W on that small of a tank will give you major heat problems.

 

Just to add on, you might bleach your corals with that much lighting....maybe you should just upgrade the tank to around 100 gallons and then you could use both....

 

Just to add, with that much light you actually are somewhat limited to what you'll be able to keep because unless you shade most corals only the highest light coral will survive under that much light, if the bulbs have good reflectors anyway. You could probably get away with 1 250w MH light pretty easy, you could even do 1 150 probably depending on what you wanted to keep.

As for fish to keep I would stick with fish that are 1-3" when full grown and I would probably only put maybe 2 fish in there unless they are all tiny. There are a few types of small gobies that nice for smaller tanks like watchman/shrimp gobies, clown gobies, firefish etc.

 

thanks all looks like ill go find a 250W MH light then.