New Hood Lighting Help

[bUcky]

Im setting out in a few days to build a hood for a new tank i aquired. its a 4 foot tank that holds 55 gallons.

Im looking for extreme growth! so i wanted some very powerful lights.

I have Metal Halide lights 100 watts each and would like to use 2 of them in the hood for almost 4 wpg.

will MH lights work for aqua plants? thanks

 

[Themuleous]

MH lighting is very good, but there are two issues I know of, firstly depending on how high above the tank you have them, the light can be concentrated over a very small area, so most people combine them with a standard lighting tube or two to even out the lighting across the whole length of the tank. Also, they get very hot, so you'll probably want to have them bit high above the tank.

Sam