SPS Corals/Lighting Idea Overkill?

[kaybee]

Background:

A friend of mine recently purchased a colony of small african cichlids (tropheus) and eventually wants to breed them and was interested in getting a 10-20gal grow out tank for future fry. His tropheus are still juvies so he's a good year or two from obtaining any fry from them by my estimations so he's in no big hurry.

I found on the bulletin board at work that someone was getting rid of of a lot of stuff for free (due to an extremely short notice move), mostly furniture pieces, but also including a "free saltwater aquarium". No other details regarding the tank. I figured for free it would be a standard 10-20gal tank used for SW that might be of use as a FW grow out tank for my friend, plus, from what was in the ad, the person lived near my friend so I passed him the contact information.

My friend picked up the tank but it didn't suit his needs and said since I found the ad that I could have it and gave it to me. What I thought was going to be small salt-creeped 10gal aquarium ended up being a 29gal Oceanic BioCube with stand and in great condition!

Situation: So now I have this free new tank on my hands and am toying with the idea of making it a SPS tank with perhaps a crocea clam which means I can't use the stock lighting (2x 36watt PC's).

Question: I'm aware of the heat factor but I'm thinking of getting either a 250w MH fixture. Is that overkill for SPS corals and a crocea clam in a 29gal Biocube? Or would a 150w MH fixture be more appropriate?

[labnjab]

How tall is the biocube? We had a standard 29 gallon with a 250 watt hqi and it didn't seem like overkill. It was great because we could keep acros on the sand and they still looked just as colorful as acros higher up. The heat was the biggest factor, but we just kept a fan running over the tank. With a bio cube your probably going to have a chiller regardless if you go 250 or 150.

I would go with the 250 watt. That way you could keep anything anywhere

[kaybee]

Thanks for the info. It's about 19" tall.

It's good to know that 250w isn't too much.

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

250w is way more than you need. a 150 will suit your needs in that tank. You don't need to go to 250's until you get to 23" or deeper.

[kaybee]

Labnjab, when you had your SPS corals under 250w of MH in your MH did you have to particularly acclimate them to that intensity or were they good to go from the start?

Unless I'm mistaken most of the SPS corals at the LFS's in my area are kept about 2.5ft-3ft under 400w MH. My plan is to keep SPS 8"-12" under either 150w or 250w....or maybe 175w is a happy medium?

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

kaybee, I used to keep SPS only a couple of inches off the substrate in a 75gal under 175's, and they did quite well. The 175's wouldn't be a bad compromise.

[labnjab]

Labnjab, when you had your SPS corals under 250w of MH in your MH did you have to particularly acclimate them to that intensity or were they good to go from the start?

Unless I'm mistaken most of the SPS corals at the LFS's in my area are kept about 2.5ft-3ft under 400w MH. My plan is to keep SPS 8"-12" under either 150w or 250w....or maybe 175w is a happy medium?
It depended on where I got them. If they came from a tank with halides, then I could put them anywhere, but if we got them from a tank with t-5's or pc's I started them low and moved up. The only coral I had that lost color from the light was a green cap. It was a light green in my tank with t-5's and when I moved it under halides it turned brown. Now in our 75 gallon its bright green with a purple rim and 5 times the size

I still acclimate in our 75 gallon which has 2x250 watt HQI. So far nothing has lost any color (knock on wood, lol)