Fresh Water Metal Halide Lighting?

[woody88]

Hi all,I recently removed a small internal metal halide fitting and seperate ballast unit from a commercial property and as I love the clear white/blue light effect from halides, would be it be possible to use this as my main source of light for my 20g cichlid tank. The tank is 30" wide and 18" high if that helps.
I know about the heat they give off so I will have to modidy my hood and somehow suspend the light high above my tank, or install some kind of extractor to drive the hot air out,but would it effect my fish or the good bacteria in my tank. Would it create an algae bloom? How high would the light have to be suspended if it was ok to do so. Thanks.

P.S- I get my 30g saltwater FOWLR tank tomorrow off my mate that has been running for 3 years with 1 pecula clown and 2 damsels. He's even gonna transport it all and set it up for me! Can't wait!

 

[markandhisfish]

i think it could well be too bright , and you could well end up constabntly fighting algae,

 

[woody88]

At the top of my tank I have a piece of perspex [used as splash back] with a 50mm hole for feeding. How about if I tinted it on both sides? Apart from the brightness and possible algae bloom is there anything else that could be seriously affected, or should I just forget it and look into T5 lamps instead.

My current lighting : 2ft low wattage 840 tube and 12v DC 10" blue L.E.D strip for 'moonlight'.

Another possibility I thought was to rig up 2 x GU10 lamps [L.E.D] one cool white and one blue.

I plan to add a few live plants in my tank in the next few days. Would any of the above affect them in any way.Cheers

 

[markandhisfish]

dont quote me on this , but i think that metal halides can be good for planted tanks. as for the tinting , the other drawback i can see with halides is the heat they give out , which youre obviously aware of .

if you get the marine tank why not use it on that? apparantly very good lighting for corals .

 

[woody88]

dont quote me on this , but i think that metal halides can be good for planted tanks. as for the tinting , the other drawback i can see with halides is the heat they give out , which youre obviously aware of .

if you get the marine tank why not use it on that? apparantly very good lighting for corals .


Cheers. The marine tank already has adequate lighting and I plan to keep it FOWLR so i might just keep the halide as back up lighting for it if I do get coral.