180 gal lighting question

[SwiftysReef]

Would two metal halides work on a 180 tank its 6' long or would I have to put three of them

 

[James77]

You'd need 3 if you wanted full coverage. You could get by with 2 if you didn't mind some dimmer areas and more spillover to the floor from raising the reflectors higher.

 

[SwiftysReef]

I was going to put a canopy over it would that help...im not overly concerned about dimmer areas on the sides since it will be a mixed reef as long as majority is well lit. Also the lights will be 400 watt if that makes a difference and what height should I keep them

 

[tinkerman]

If this is a glass tank how do you plan to deal with the cross braces with 2 halides?

 

[SwiftysReef]

Very carefully of course...

 

[sbeason]

If this 180 has the two cross braced, it will be tough to use only two mh lights to cover it. I have 3 on my 210 and even with the two cross braces, there was some shadow depending upon the height above the water that you hang the pendants from. I use 400w lumenbrights x 3.

Thanks, Steve

 

[BigCountry74]

You can do 2, but your gonna have to hang them high and make sure the reflection is correct like others have posted.

LFS's do it this way using 400w. Of course they have no cross braces in any of their tanks though..

You mentioned 400w so I think you would be ok maybe.