400 watt or 250 watt halide for my tank?

[KJAhp098]

Trying to decide between a 400 watt or 250 watt Radium bulb with a Lumatek select-a-watt ballast for my 36"x36"x27" Marineland tank. I'm using a Lumenbright Mini reflector and will be using 2-24" VHO bulbs to supplement. The rock is about 20"-22" from the bulb. I'll be keeping only SPS corals.

 

[xdusty6920]

Depends on your sps choices. You could get away with putting light loving acros, millis, etc up top and less light demanding corals like choice montis etc down low, and stick with a 250. But if u want to keep acros etc high and low I'd go with a 400. It's gives you more flexibility, but of course a lot more power consumption.

 

[KJAhp098]

The way I made the aquascape is pretty much all one level throughout that slightly slopes up a few inches in the back, so all corals would basically be the same distance from the surface. I'll try to get a picture this morning.

 

[Timber77]

The 400 would be my choice if only using one bulb. not familiar with your ballast. Its not that overkill , had 4 400s on tar ballast for many years on my 177 gallon tank and every time I go to the reef shop in Lisle, I miss that setup but the heat issues and power draw just made me go with led's. If I had a smaller setup I wouldn't think twice about using one 400 radium, its a really nice color IMO