To much light ??

if your using the halide mount it like 2 feet above the water or else you will cook your tank unless you have a chiller

 

you can also put several layers of window screen over the top of the tank to shad and, every 2 days take 1 layer off so they can addjust. but most deffiently raise the M/H . try to use some extra fans you can buy a small clamp ons at walmart pretty cheap

 

how would you suggest keeping the light from going all over w/o building a 2 foot tall canopy??

 

buy a halide reflecting fixture(just the encloser) that will hang from the ceiling or a pole, probably can get one from a home improvement store.

 

I let my 150G stop when I had a serious black algae outbreak that wiped out my tank. I recently restarted that tank and I have learned that letting the tank die then trying to get it back up is way more expensive than trying to battle the problem now. I use only Tropic Marin Pro-Reef, so you can see that I burned through an entire 200G bucket of salt mix just restocking the water in the tank and sump. On top of that, I also burned through a set of my RO/DI filters making that water. I just wanted to let you know that it is quite difficult to raise a tank from the dead. If I knew then what I know now, I would have done more CPR on the tank to keep it alive than how I just let it die off. I can empathize with the loss of income though.

 

I personally wouldnt stick a 400w MH over a 29G. Not only is it pure overkill, it will fry the tank, even at 2ft away. Placing the MH so high will not only light your house up, it will light the street up too - just a waste of energy, and utterly needless.

x2 T5's would be fine imo, remember watts dont mean anything when it comes to T5's.

But for continued growth, you may want to add an extra 2 bulbs - possibly selling the MH you no longer need to fund for it (if your not setting the 90 up again).

 

hey just and fyi for your bryopsis/gha i had the same types of algae covering everything in my tank, was days from tearing it down. then i got a reactor and rowaphos from tangster, and it(or so i think its the reason) made my tank sparkle in weeks, 150 grms cleaned my rocks better than if i were to scrub it myself. the bryopsis plumosa just melted away.

not a guarantee, but if you dont have one try it.


and i think t5 are fine for them corals, my 4x54 watts will bleach even sps.
i have to say i have not gotten any corals from a tank with halides that has not looked better under my t5 in a wk. (if that made sense)

i can feel the halide guys about to pounce. lol

 

Im a T5 kinda guy too

 

Watts per gallon mean nothing anymore. I have areally good friend who has a 300 gallon lit up with 3 250 watters. It is a display tank but he pulls a lot of frags from it for sale and makes a lot of money doing it. What am I trying to say??? He's growing sps like crazy at only a little over 2 watts per gallon. The 400 watt mh is going to be way too much for a 29 and I do think that the t-5's will be fine. Believe me dude you are asking for more problems.

 

Here goes the pounce. JK I prefer MH over t-5 for 1 reason and that's the shimmer effect produced by MH that I have never seen from t-5. With that beings said, I am seriously thinking about purchasing a t-5 unit for my FOWLR and Softie and LPS tank. Nothing against them, that's just my opinion.