175W enough for SPS?

[BlueAbyss]

Alright I'm stuck. Again

Is a 175W MH gonna be enough to have SPS?

The tank is only a 20 tall, and I'd rather not have a more powerful light than I need, since I do plan on running them for 8 hours a day. But if I get the 30 tall which has the same dimensions but longer, I might want something more powerful... any thoughts would be helpful.

[BlueAbyss]

Hmm I should have put this into a different spot, it should probably have gone into the equipment forum.

[Snappy]

Yes you can grow most sps under 175 watt MH but many of them will need to be placed fairly high up to get good colour.

[Veng68]

Iwasaki 14K (sometimes called 15K) 175 watt MH with an electronic ballast has been tested to have the most PAR of the 175 watt bulbs.

Cheers,
Vic

[Aquattro]

I used 175w for the first year of SPS keeping. They'll live, and grow a bit, but not the same as you'd get with bigger bulbs. Especially if you go deeper, you'll want at least 250w.

[Veng68]

The 175 watt Iwasaki with an electronic ballast is supposed to have as much PAR as any 250 watt bulb according to Sanjay Joshi.

It's a pricey bulb though.

Cheers,
Vic

[High tide]

Originally Posted by BlueAbyss

Alright I'm stuck. Again

Is a 175W MH gonna be enough to have SPS?

The tank is only a 20 tall, and I'd rather not have a more powerful light than I need, since I do plan on running them for 8 hours a day. But if I get the 30 tall which has the same dimensions but longer, I might want something more powerful... any thoughts would be helpful.

Yes, a 175w MH will be ample on a 20 gal. aquarium. Your SPS will be fine at different levels of the aquarium. The Iwasaki was a good recommendation.

[BlueAbyss]

Indeed, upon further reading the Iwasaki bulb is very white when run with a good electronic ballast. So that's what I'm going with