Re: MH pendants and tank size

To: Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
Subject: Re: MH pendants and tank size
From: Stephen.Pushak at saudan_HAC.COM
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 95 11:23:11 PDT
In-Reply-To: <199509261903.PAA13444 at looney_actwin.com>; from "Aquatic-Plants-Owner at actwin_com" at Sep 26, 95 3:03 pm
Mailer: Elm [revision: 70.85]

> From: mbmccabe at coil_com
> >
> >Anyone out there have a feel for the largest tank a *single* 175w MH
> >pendant can support? I mean to provide enough light for fairly
> >demanding plants. I know its easily enough light for a 2' long tank,
> >but how about 3'? (I'm not really worried about depth; all of the
> >tanks below are fairly shallow.)
> 
> 	Per the HydroDFarm mail-order catalog, (800-833-6868 to get you 
> own) foro their smaller pendant w/a 150w or 175w bulb, they suggest a 2' 
> sqaure area of primary lighting, with a 3' square area as supplementary.
> 	If you make the jump to their 250w model, they suggest 3'sqr as 
> primaryt and 5'sqr as supplementary.

I'm using a 250w MH on a 2x2 tank 28" deep, this works well.
You need the extra power for a deep tank like this.

I just put a new 250w MH on my 1x4 tank 18"; the lighting is real
strong for the centre 3' of the tank but the corners can be a bit
shady. This is just fine for echinodorus and crypts so I put the
large echinodorus on the ends. I find these plants tend to get
brush (red) algae if they are in strong light and did better under
the 4' FLs. I wanted to have 2 175w lamps but this would have been
more than double the price of a single 250w. The only problem is
the shade for the lamp fixture needs to be a weird shape; they are
custom building a design I made so we'll see how that works. More
later. I did a lot of aqua-scaping over the weekend and did a
major frontal assault on the brush algae on the rear wall of the
aquarium. Good thing I had a battery powered "vacuum cleaner"
device for sucking up the algal debris. It pumps the water up
a tube and through a small filter bag where it falls back into
the aquarium. Much easier than trying to use the Python gravel
washer/water changer or playing with the tubes of the power
filter. Too bad it won't reach the bottom of the 75g tank.

After cleaning the majority of the brush algae out, the Flying
Fox is now actively hunting around for algae to munch on. He
used to eat the H. poly but I think he's lost his appetite for
it and seems to prefer algae. I'm keeping him a bit hungry
and this helps.

 Steve Pushak - spush at hcsd_hac.com - Vancouver, BC, Canada