Mobile Bay Reef Keepers

I just got into saltwater aquariums and I have a 15 gallon nano reef with 49 watts of pc lighting( 32 watts white/18 watts blue). I have a torch coral, star polyps, mushrooms, leather coral and a small green bubble tip anenome in the tank. I would like to upgrade my light so I can have a wider array of coral and also give the coral better color. What lights can i get that will fit the tank (15 inches wide)? Are metal halides an option? I am not worried about the temperature, I can take care of that.

You could go with a 150 w MH pendant. Just have it suspended above the tank and that will eliminate some temp problems also. Look for the double ended pendants. I'm not sure what all K ratings they have for the 150's but I perfer something in the 12k to 14k range.

Ditto what he said.

Phil

Ok personally I do not see any problem keeping just about anything with the lighting you currently have. You may be VERY SUPRISED what you can keep with your current lighting. As long as your color spectrum is good you should be able to keep most acros with your current setup.

When you go into putting a halide on top of 15 gallons of water you have a severe problem of evaporation, cooling and general overkill. It's kind of like putting a V-8 in a Yugo, yeah you could do it by why in the hell would you.

As Phisher recently said in a post, "I reaaly think lighting is over-blown in the hobby a bit"

I vote for a dual 400 watt MH... you'd have to turn them side-ways so you can fit them both over the tank. You'd have about 53 watts/gallon of lighting. While you're at it... you will need a 50 gpd RO/DI unit plumbed into the tank to keep up with the evaporation.

Sorry, I don't have any real advice for you because I've never had a nano tank. Seriously... I would base it on the depth of the tank. If you have the standard 15 gallon (i.e. not the tall), then you're only 12" tall. I think a PC light would be more than adequate! If you have the tall, then I'd think about a 100 to 150 watt MH, and I would use a pendant like was previously suggested. Keep in mind that if you do go with the MH, then you will have a tough time with the softies...

A pendant would be neat in a sort of novelty sort of way and you could keep anything that you wanted and get great color on SPS but pc's are adequate. If you are looking to diversify, add some Monti's like orange and green digitata's and capricornis'. Most of those Monti's will retain their color in lower light levels. Yellow Porites and Acropora youngei are other sps that will usually hold ther color if water quality is good.

I think Iwasaki makes a 50k 150w lamp that I have heard has a nice color but I have never seen one if you choose to go that route.

I only suggest a 150 MH because if he does go with acros he can get better color. I'm sorry but when I had VHO's on my tank nothing colored up. I my current setup only has DE MH on it and no suplimental lighting. If I were to set up a fish only tank I would go with 150w DE MH bulbs only for the color. When I put the 250 DE on my tank my fish looked so much better. Then again thats just me. I can't stand the purple/pink of actinics and love the white with a blue tint and the shimmer from MH.

When dealing with MH on a small tank the other problem I have is the external aesthetics. I pendant hanging down or an extremely tall canopy on a small tank looks very odd, I hope you see my point on this.

I really appreciate the replies, if anyone has anything else let me know. I am going to research further I am really in no rush. Also how much more light would I need to do have a clam?
Thanks,
Creighton

From what I read... if you want a clam, then you need the MH lighting and you'll pretty much need to stick with SPS corals.

You could still go with just a single MH, but you might want to consider the smaller 70w. Should help with the colors and not as bad on heat I would guess. However I am in the same boat as Fishfood in that I have never run a nano, so take my suggestions for what they are worth.

I'm lost as why you would have to stick with sps if you have a MH? A 150 isn't much light. I have a 175 on a 26 bowfront that sps just don't grow or do anything in. The tank now has just zoanthids, 1 leather, blastos, ricordia and other shrooms along with a hammer. It had more but has never been the same since the hurricane.

I think you will find, with a shallow tank and MH lighting, that the leathers will not like the lighting. I have a 24" tall tank with 250 watt MH and my leathers (sitting on the bottom) usually closeup when the MH kick on. They are open when the VHO's are on by themselves and closed when all the lighting is off.

Even though you're talking about using only a 150 watt MH, your tank is only 12" tall. You have sand (2-3"?) and if the softies (leathers in paticular) are a few inches off the ground and grow to any size at all then they will be only a few inches (6" maybe?) from the surface. IMO, this probably won't work. This is just my experience with MH and softies, but you may have different results.

I would imagine that if it was a high color temp mh the softies would be ok. I noticed that my green Sinularia would close up more often with the 6500k on than with the 20kk on. It must be a PAR thing.