[passinetti2007]

So I just got done swapping tanks and it was a pain in the butt. I'd hate to swap a large tank. I just got sick of my nano cube. It was a piece of garbage. I went to the LFS today and the owner gave me a great deal on MH lighting. I got 285 watt MH lights with 2 compacts in a fixture with fans and ballast for $350. I also got 2 sps frags and a clam. I spent 6 hours working on everything. I'm stressed. I couldn't get my rocks to do what I wanted them to do and I'm worried I will need some proper filtration soon and I'm broke poor now. My fission nano skimmer wouldn't work out of the box so all I'm relying on now is my 30 lbs of live rock that I got for filtration. I got a powerhead in there to churn the water but I'm in need of a referagium bad or however you spell it. My LFS is sold out of the ones I'd need too. Well here's a shot of the tank and the light. What do you think?

[glampka]

WOW! Lots of light for what looks like a small tank. What's the size?

[passinetti2007]

10 gal was thinking about getting a 35 gal but couldn't afford it plus the lights and I wanted the lights

[mtfabel]

That is 28.5 watts of light per gallon. Im sure someone will correct me if I am wrong but that is way to much wattage per gallon.

[boombadan]

wow...thats a neat 10g nano. You should get lots of growth with that light. Im going with compact floresent lights on my 29g tank. Hopefully i can get MH soon ,idk though cuz of the price....

[passinetti2007]

Originally Posted by mtfabel

That is 28.5 watts of light per gallon. Im sure someone will correct me if I am wrong but that is way to much wattage per gallon.

should i raise the lights? would that be better?

[mtfabel]

I personally would raise them at least a foot or better off the tank. I was hoping someone else would chime in on this. But I doubt that even in the wild do they get that much light.

[Reef-Daddy]

Definitely too much light. I would definitely raise it up until you buy a bigger tank.

[passinetti2007]

other then the evaporation I was told by several sources that it won't be harmful to my tank and I'm prepared to fill the water daily to help keep the salinity stable. So I'm just going to leave it. I got no fish so I'll just wait and watch my coral grow like weeds.

[RyanG]

Originally Posted by passinetti2007

other then the evaporation I was told by several sources that it won't be harmful to my tank and I'm prepared to fill the water daily to help keep the salinity stable. So I'm just going to leave it. I got no fish so I'll just wait and watch my coral grow like weeds.

If you leave it at that height and put fish/corals in-your corals will burn if they are SPS corals, and if they are LPS corals they will melt away. You need to raise it up. What sources told you that would be alright?

[glampka]

Seems like a lot of light for a small tank. On the question of "Can you have too much light", FWIW here's a rather interesting thread posted on another board: Settling the "too much light" rumor forever. 400w 20k MH on a 15G. bye box - Nano-Reef.com Forums

[passinetti2007]

update...tank still doing awesome

[crazygator]

ryang is right, if you have too much lighting you can burn and bleach your corals much in the same way in the wild when corals are too close to the surface of the water they cannot handle the intensity of the sun and bleach out.