30" Deep Water - What lighting will be sufficient?

[Spar]

I am thinking about dumping my 30" cubed paludarium with a hinge-front door and replacing it with a full 30"-cubed solid tank so I can fill it all the way up with water.

Question is, would a HQI Lighting unit with 1 250w bulb and 2 65w PC lights be sufficient enough for that depth? 380watts

The tank itself is 110g's. With the 250w HQI bulb, it would be 3.5wpg.

Also, if the depth wouldn't be a problem with the HQI bulb, would a 150w HQI bulb be sufficient enough as is? 2.5wpg?

 

[Tom Barr]

Re: 30" Deep Water - What lighting will be sufficient?

That would be plenty of light.

I would add more gravel in the tank personally.

I would build up a side or the rear or the middle to add the heigth and plant the higher light stwem plants around these areas, trhen lower light plants around the base/deeper regions.

It's plenty of light, I grew a number of plants at 54w of PC light in a 24" cube w/2" max depth gravel.
You have a lot more than that and only 6" more depth in the tank. A 250W HQI is about = to 400W or more of PC light FYI.
So 65X2 + 400= 530 so I'd say so...................

Run the PC lights for 11hours, the MH for 7-8.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[Spar]

Re: 30" Deep Water - What lighting will be sufficient?

That would be plenty of light.

I would add more gravel in the tank personally.

I would build up a side or the rear or the middle to add the heigth and plant the higher light stwem plants around these areas, trhen lower light plants around the base/deeper regions.

It's plenty of light, I grew a number of plants at 54w of PC light in a 24" cube w/2" max depth gravel.
You have a lot more than that and only 6" more depth in the tank. A 250W HQI is about = to 400W or more of PC light FYI.
So 65X2 + 400= 530 so I'd say so...................

Run the PC lights for 11hours, the MH for 7-8.

Regards,
Tom Barr

Thanks for the advice! I didn't realize the equivalency of HQI vs PC wasn't 1:1.

Can I stick with the 150W MH (HQI) light then and still be fine? I assume so.

I also like your landscape idea. I have flat gravel bedding right now. Kind of bland.