mh lights for 6ft

[mordrake]

hi

what would the recommended wattage for MH lights for a tank that's 6 x 2 x 2.5ft(ht) ?

what is the recommended bulbs, 6.5k or 10k?
the tank will be setup as a planted tank for discus.
asking this cos i read somewhere that the usual guide of 3w/G does not really apply to MH lights.
1st time setting up a tank of this size

thanks for the info

[theodore]

Actually the WPG guideline is still applicable for MH but I seldom use that nowadays - It doesn't work that well for non-standard sized tanks.

2x 150W MH pendants should suffice for your tank. Daylight (6500K) is better. Osram should have daylight bulbs for both HQI and HCI. You can confirm that on their website.

[mordrake]

thanks for the tip.
can save the $$ for the extra mh liao..... and spend it on other things

[tawauboy]

2 mh lights may not give you sufficient coverage. mh pendants have 'spotlight' effect so the light will be localised. having more lamps will even out the light coverage.
think someone mentioned 1 mh for every 2ft length. search the forum. so for your case there should be 3 mh lights.
use lower mh bulbs of lower power rating.

[sherchoo]

You still can get goog coverage if you position the light fixtures higher but you'll get lots of glare as a result.

MH comes in 70W, 150W and 250W (there are 400W and above fixtures that we seldom consider for planted tank and that's why I'm not mentioning it).

4 X 70W would do quite well in terms of coverage but the cost is almost double compared to 2 X 150W. I would suggest you go for the 2 X 150W.