K I read a lot of it....discussion got into many sub topics ....so I started to see why the thread got so huge.
Personally I think your light at 18" over the surface would be good. Consider that your 150w MH may be great..but remember that depending on quality of bulb those can go bad in 6months to 12 months.
You can use 14k bulb so you have a blue spectrum in there. This way it will bring out the color ...the closer to sunlight you get the better the growth speed..but you sacrifice looks. 6.7k is sunlight level...10k bulbs are close and are white....14k is the happy med.
Now I noticed you have a .5 phosphate reading. Not terrible... If you really want a fire and forget method of phosphate absorbing.
Look into a 2 little fishies product called a Phosban Reactor. Remember to have a PH buffer on hand for this. The initial break in of Phosban hits your PH levels till it breaks in. That stuff lasts for months in my reactor.
It certainly wouldn't be a bad idea to consider a Skimmer sir. With the investment so far.... You could hide a 20g sump and slap your equipment in that. Clearing up all the things HOB of that.
They make Sump/Fuge also...or Do it yourself guides online. This way you can have your Fuge....and sump....and get a good skimmer for the sump...hide your heater...and have nothing hanging off your tank at all.....minus over flow box ..unless you drill.
The extra 20+ g would expand water volume and make parameters much more easy to keep stable with all the extra volume you added by the Sump/Fuge.
Personally I think your light at 18" over the surface would be good. Consider that your 150w MH may be great..but remember that depending on quality of bulb those can go bad in 6months to 12 months.
You can use 14k bulb so you have a blue spectrum in there. This way it will bring out the color ...the closer to sunlight you get the better the growth speed..but you sacrifice looks. 6.7k is sunlight level...10k bulbs are close and are white....14k is the happy med.
Now I noticed you have a .5 phosphate reading. Not terrible... If you really want a fire and forget method of phosphate absorbing.
Look into a 2 little fishies product called a Phosban Reactor. Remember to have a PH buffer on hand for this. The initial break in of Phosban hits your PH levels till it breaks in. That stuff lasts for months in my reactor.
It certainly wouldn't be a bad idea to consider a Skimmer sir. With the investment so far.... You could hide a 20g sump and slap your equipment in that. Clearing up all the things HOB of that.
They make Sump/Fuge also...or Do it yourself guides online. This way you can have your Fuge....and sump....and get a good skimmer for the sump...hide your heater...and have nothing hanging off your tank at all.....minus over flow box ..unless you drill.
The extra 20+ g would expand water volume and make parameters much more easy to keep stable with all the extra volume you added by the Sump/Fuge.
