55 gallon lighting

hi I'm new to the forums my name is Anthony and Im just looking for some advice. I have a 55 gallon long that in the process of turning into a reef tank. I just don't know how long I should leave on my lights. I have two 250w halides and 4 t5 bulbs. also I am wondering if I have my lights to close to my water as they are I'm about 4 inch legs.

 

Hi Anthony, welcome to 3reef.

That is a ton of light for that size tank.

The MH I would not run for any more than 8 hours. You might consider running the T5 for 1 hour prior to the MH coming on and one hour after the MH go off for a totally of 10 hours for the T5.

I would raise the lights another 5 inches or more to get a good spread, again you have more than enough light.

Be careful acclimating corals and inverts. Start low and move up slowly unless your know for sure newly acquired corals came from an intense lighting systems such as yours.

 

thanks I found the lights cheap on ebay so I jumped on it. I plan moving up to a 75 gallon sometime soon so I might just stick with fish till then unless I can hang my lights. thanks for the reply.

 

What type of t-5 bulbs are in it? I would consider going with at least 2 actinics just for color. That might help reduce the intense lighting a little.

 

the t5s are all blues but I like the all blues and the way it also lights up my room is cool . tomorrow I will be making a trip to menards to get some stuff to hang my lights. I'm gonna move them up 5 or more inches like said above.

 

If the T5HO bulbs can be controlled separately, I'd run 2 actinic and 2 full spectrums for now and skip the MH. FWIW, you could grow any coral you want with 4 full spectrum T5HOs or just the MH alone. You could also add a LED moonlight kit for the blue night light. Point is, your looking at a lot of money in bulb replacement and energy bills to run the entire fixture when it's really not necessary.

 

my lights got the built in blue LED which are really cool and yeah replacing each light will prob cost just asmuch as the fixture new. so maybe I will just do mornings with mh and the rest of the day with the t5s? also I can run 2 t5s at a time or all four everything has it's own switch.

 

Sounds like it's set up for the total dawn to dusk lighting effect. I.E.:

2 actinic T5s for 1hr, then 2 full spectrum T5s for 1hr for sunrise, then

MH for (app) 6hrs for midday sun, then

2 full spectrum T5s for 1hr, and finally 2 actinic T5s for 1hr for sunset.

If you have the funds to run it that way, that's cool, but personally, I find it more of an expensive novelty than a necessity.

 

I wish I could afford some nice leds but maybe next year. I love the lights but I did notice a big spike in my nipsco bill.

 

You can DIY a nice LED setup for fairly cheap. There are plenty of threads here for those