# Metal Halides ONLY???



## Jlanders001 (Mar 31, 2009)

I have 3 150W HQI fixtures from FishNeedIt.com suspended over my 180 gallon tank witch comes out to 2.5W per gallon. All three bulbs are 8000K. I'm planing only to use plants that will grow well with 2to 3 watts per gallon.

Being in the aquarium hobby for 17 years, I am relatively experienced with growing plants with CFs and T5s but this is my first endevor with MH. A friend told me that aquarium plants will not do well with ONLY MH bulbs and no flouresents. He says they will do fine for six months or so, but will start to go south after that. I didn't think he was right, but I wanted to find out for sure.

So my question obviously is: Do plants do fine with only MH bulbs and no flouresents?

I wanted MH only to get that MH Shimmer from the ripples on the top of the water.

Thanks guys, You have a nice forum here.

P.S. Anyone here also post at Marine Depot Forums?


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## king oz (Jun 27, 2007)

i have all mh over my 240, here this week im adding t5's for a lil more color I'm my opinion you don't get great color rendition from mh's, but growth has always been awesome for me. of course I believe in changing bulbs every 8-10 months


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## Jlanders001 (Mar 31, 2009)

How long have you had those MH fixtures going? Years?

I don't have plants in this tank yet, but I think these 8K bulbs look great. A nice crisp white that looks similar to Coralife CF 10K

Does anyone else here do MH only? I would think so due to the availibility of so many single MH pedants out there. I doubt people who use pendants are putting flouresent lights on thier tanks also.

JTL


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## Brilliant (Jun 25, 2006)

I use mh only over my 75g growing many different plants. I have 2x150w over 48x18x21 and it is perfect.

The tank is about 4 years old and has been running mh only for about a year. I replaced the bulbs once due to color preference, the plants were still growing great.


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## Jlanders001 (Mar 31, 2009)

So I gather that my "friend" is full of it.

Not a lighting question really, but do you guys know where I could get any "carpet" style foreground type plants that will do well at 2.5 watts per gallon. 

I would like to try Glosso, but I think it has to have a really high level of lighting. Plus my tank is 24" deep. I know that's a tall order, but there has to be something I could grow as a carpet.


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## monkeyruler90 (Feb 27, 2008)

for a foreground dwarf hairgrass did great for me in that light range. it depends on how small you want the foreground. hairgrass can get to around 3 inches tall and glosso and hc will stay pretty short but for that you need more light or else they'll start growing up.


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## ashappard (Jun 3, 2006)

I use single fishneedit 150W fixtures over 24x24x17tall tanks. the WPG works out to around 3.75 and I have no trouble growing even the most difficult light loving sp. / carpet plants / Erios / Trithuria / etc. I have used this strategy on my main growouts for about a year.


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## king oz (Jun 27, 2007)

I always change my bulbs on time, but im using 65k, i can grow glosso and gaint baby tears no problem. but i think I have more watts per gallon on my 240.


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## IbnOzn (Mar 16, 2007)

I run a 70W 10K MH over a 20 gallon. It is much brighter than the same wattage in a fluorescent bulb so watts-per-gallon rules don't apply so much. Metal halide has more lumens per watt than fluorescent and higher PAR values. You should be fine with Glosso. Not sure what your friend is talking about by plants "going south" after 6 months but it could be that was in reference to the bulbs.


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## Pen3 (Jul 9, 2006)

My hc grew like crazy on my MH lights and i have been using it for over 3 years. I have grown all sorts of plant and they all grew just fine but i tend to stay with green plants only because of my green bulbs. My setup is 2 ADA 8k green bulbs on Lumen Max 3 on a 48x20x20 tank and i change the bulbs every 10 months.


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