Any Recommended Metal Halide
 

Hi all Bros

Have been thinking of changing to Metal Halide lighting for my 5x2x2 tank. After some read up I believe 2 x 150W should be sufficient. Also notice that most of the MH lighting comes in pendant form. Thus making installation difficult as it is ceiling mounted.

1) Has anyone seen those tankover type? What is the pros/cons?
2) Any recommendation of a reliable MH? Which LFS carries them?

Million Thanks in advance

I do believe Tank mounted ones do exist but they don't come cheap either.
They're basically modded versions of the ceiling mounted ones, they hang on a brace that rests on your tanks, thus no need to drill into the ceiling, however, how strong it is or how taxing on your tank's bracing, i have no idea.

The pros would be that your ceiling would be spotless.
The cons however are more. Due to the lack of distance between the water and the MH, temperatures may increase slightly as well as visually the brace is not as appeasing as the pendant.

Ask Brrrr (Vincent) more about this, he was the one who informed me of such a brace, perhap you could PM him then.

Cheers,
Jerome

keong seong at blk 22 havelock rd carries the on-tank mh lights.
the prices as easily double that of ceiling mounted ones.
other than heat and not so visually appealing, another major con is that it gets in the way when doing maintenance.

For on tank MHs, i advice u can check out the Marine LFS. they carry lots of MHs stuff. Or another suggest u can get wall mounted MHs. Which i personnally think its better as u can adjust to the height u want the Mhs to be from yer tank.
C328 carries tankover type (if i'm not remembered correctly). those Mhs in a nice casing which u can place easliy over yer tank.
Cheers. ;)

MH check out marine ones. Wah u use MH for what? No necessary lah, unless u want really red plants

I have an overtank MH. I got the retailer to change it to planted tank compatible lights.Currently all commerical MH set in singapore is meant for marine setup. It's from Dymax, Hilux, 2x150watts(MH)+2x30watt(FL), price is pretty.... reasonable. PM me if you really wants the price. Someone else in aquaticquotient PMed me for advise too, but he bought it and customised it in biotope.

1. Pro- no need to hang from the ceiling, but it has extra components for you to hang it.
Con - To me, it weighs a ton.... make sure your tank is sturdy enough. Distance is fixed, cannot raise it higher if mounted on top of tank, can be troublesome for some people who like to dive into the tank...

2. Since you stay in the east, you can try KK aquarium at tampines market.

Distance wise, I tested, it took 8-10 hours to heat the water up to 32 degree from 28 degree at a distance of 30 cm away from water surface.Anyway if you hang it higher, you find your whole room brighten up significantly. Distance is around 1'+, which I think heat is not the real bother, since you MUST have fans(which I did) or chiller to use a MH system anyway.

MH due to its high power setup, you must prepare your tank properly or three major things will happen.
1. Overheat, even if your light is 2' above the water.... The MH glass surface is HOT HOT HOT, I accidentally touch it once and got a big fat blister for it.
2. Algae galore
3. Splashes.... MH too close, less than 1', water might splash on the tempered glass and cause stains, only in worse case, cracks.

Note: Unlikely I will repeat the above if any similar questions/threads pop up.

If you are looking for a setup using MH, you may want to visit Gratiola and ask for some advise. It's expensive equipment so it's worth the trouble to ask that bit more stuff.

good suggestion.
with that kind of light intensity, u need to keep up with the dosing, co2, etc or else algae will visit real fast.

actually, while personallly not a user of MH, because its spot lighting, how high the light is from the surface will determine whether the plants will slant towards the light.

even using fluro tubes, the plants tend to slant towards the centre because they dont get "burnt out"

and yeah, consultation with more experienced people is good

if i'm not wrong ppl having marine tanks are deep tanks. like 3 ft?? hehe ^.^ maybe exagerate abit lah. but most marine extreme bros have DEEP tansk rather than long and wide ones. the can have like 3 ft by 1.5 width by 3 ft high tanks. ma chiam chicid tanks lor. also. with that depth. to trully show the brilliantness of a marine, a blue light MH will be needed. imagine u have all the swee swee star fishes, corals at the bottom with beautiful red clown fishes, using the weaker version of a PL light wouldn't it unjustify the beaty of such beauty?? same goes for planted ^^