Sooo, my friend has two 250w metal halide pendant fixtures that he is not using, and is willing to give them to me. They both have 10k bulbs. My question is, will 500 total watts per gallon be too much for my tank (about 4.46 watts per gallon)? I have a 112 gallon tank which is 60" wide, 24" tall, and 18" deep. I only have some amazon swords and curly bamboos in it at the moment, but will be getting more plants.

I realize algae might become a problem, but I have 10 Otos that really do a great job of cleaning up all algae on the walls and plants. My back wall was completely covered in green algae, but after acouple of days it was sparkling clean from the Otos.

I'm also wondering if the lights will help the goldies' color, but this would be a side benefit as they're fine now.

Thanks!

I think that is okay for reef tanks, but not your freshwater planted tank. 2-3 watts is adequate in that case.

hi Andyman

wow 500 watts that is alot even for a high maintenance planted aquarium. If you choose to use the mh lights you will be battling algae or even green water. I would suggest if you choose to use the mh lights to switch the bulbs to lighting with 6500kelvin rather than 10 000kelvin which is the high intensity lighting used on marine aquariums for corals

actually guys he said in "about 4.46 watts per gallon" the light system is 500watts tank is 112 gals, so with that kind of lighting u could grow just about anything in there.

yes he can koko i think it would be my dream to have metal halide lights maybe when i am older hmmm but if you are growing plants you will need to switch the bulbs to something from 5000-6500kelvin 10 000kelvin is too high for planted aquariums only corals do best in this light

Thank you for the replies.

I'm gonna pass on the MH lights. Too involved for me at the moment (with the needed CO2 equipment and plant substrate, etc.).

I do have two saltwater reef tanks, with one running MH lighting, and I thought it might be possible to run MH on my goldfish tank as well. I just didn't know too much about MH lights on a freshwater tank.

Thanks again!