REEF aquarium lighting 500watts metal halide for 50 gall

Question

Is 500 watts of metal halide to extreme for a 45 gallon or 50 gallon?. I want to grow corals and clams, and anemones. But i think this is a little overboard. They run 15000k double 250 watts metal halide. I already bought it and cant return it. What is your recommendation

Answer 1

5 watts per gallon is all thats needed, but i would throw an actinic blue light in there with one 250 halide and your set

Answer 2

You can never have too much light. 7 to 10 watts are perfect for hard corals you would be able to put them anywhere in the tank opposed to having to little light and keeping everything a the top

Answer 3

500 watts is a little overboard for a 50 gallon tank, it probably won't hurt anything but i don't recommend putting many corals high on any of the rocks (closest to the lights) because it may bleach them out. Just keep an eye on them when you first start putting some coral in there and they will be fine.