How Much Light For 250 Gallon Tank?

sparky79 · Jun 10, 2011

hi
im about to switch from marine to tropical. not happy but the cost of 3*250 watt metal halides and a tube giving 808watts per hour is costing a fortune.
i have what i class as a large tank, 6 foot 30" deep and 20" front to back.

my main aim if i am to keep this tank is to use as low power lighting as possible. i have found a LED light on good old ebay. it is 140 watt
do you think this will be bright enough to light it to grow plants?

i have a sump, what equipment will i need?

thanks

andy

KittyKat · Jun 10, 2011

Aim for 1 WPG, I would go for T5s with an electric ballast as they are very efficient.. although to be honest, I am growing plants under 0.65 WPG in my display tank, so even lower should work.. depends on what you want, of course.

sparky79 said:
i have a sump, what equipment will i need?

You can use a sump as your filter, just stuff it full of bio-media (1 inch, hollow, plastic balls, for example) and use fine wool to pre-filter the water as it goes in - used to do this at work. I assume you have heating to 1 W per litre or so.

KkAaNnEe · Jun 10, 2011

I would also recommend flourescents, what are the dimensions?

sparky79 · Jun 10, 2011

thanks for the replys
my main concern is the depth of tank. in the marine hobby when you go greater than 24" then you go up to 250watt.
i have found lots of quotes of 1 watt per gallon ect but this to me seems strange, surley its how deep the tank is?
so im looking at 250 watt. i was after a lot less to be honest. can i go lower if there are no plants?

*dimersions in first post

KkAaNnEe · Jun 10, 2011

It kinda depends on the dimensions

KittyKat · Jun 10, 2011

sparky79 said:
my main concern is the depth of tank. in the marine hobby when you go greater than 24" then you go up to 250watt.
i have found lots of quotes of 1 watt per gallon ect but this to me seems strange, surley its how deep the tank is?
so im looking at 250 watt. i was after a lot less to be honest. can i go lower if there are no plants?

*dimersions in first post

For reference, my dispay tank is 24" deep with 0.65 WPG, so 30" deep should be fine with 1 WPG. It does affect how much light you want to reach the bottom, but 6" do not make *that* much of a difference, I think.