90 gallon lighting help

[falcon41176]

would two 250 watt and two 175 watt mh and 220 watts of pc and 110 watts of t5 total 1130 watts would this be good for sps. on a 90 gallon tank. thanks josh

 

[gregm5]

i'd say that's more than plenty of light. in fact, i don't think you would need much more than just the 2x250, depending on the dimentions of your tank of course.

 

[Wiskey]

If it is a standard 90 (48*18) I would think that 2*250, and 2*55W PC atinic would be just fine.

Whiskey

 

[falcon41176]

yes it is a standard but i thought you want 10 watts per gallon when keeping sps. i only have 7.4 watts per gallon right know

 

[Treg]

Would it all fit?
I've got a 90 with 2 250w MH and 2 T5s, I couldnt imagine trying to fit all of that in there! :eek2:

 

[mntl]

Watts per gallon is a terrible guage, I want to find the person who started that and bust some knees . A 5" deep 20 gallon tank is not the same as a 30" deep 20 gallon tank. 2x250 would be perfect, the 175's will do nothing but add heat and raise you electric bill.

-John-

 

[sparks56]

i concur with treg

 

[falcon41176]

i can make it fit and i was going to run the plumbing into the basement. its a old rock basement and it is cold down there all the time. the main reason i ask is cuase some of my sps at the base are getting white. have great flow and all level like calc, mag, ect are all on spot. i thought all the branches were blocking the light at the base. thanks josh

 

[mntl]

What kind of ballast/bulb/reflecters are you using? I would begin with analyzing and maximizing these things efficiency before I would add more bulbs.

-John-

 

[falcon41176]

magnetic ballast corvalue. sun burst 20k and a 14k and just basic flat reflecters

 

[mntl]

I would definately start with the reflecters, metal halide (as with most bulbs) emits light in a 360degree radius around the bulb, your tanks is only within about 1/3 of this (rough estimate, without specifics of your set-up this is a guess) so you are loosing more than half of the light. A good reflecter (not just any shinny surface) will ruturn much of the light that is emitted away from the bulb and return it to your tank, and emit the light over a wider area. Think qualitative not quantitative when it comes to lighting, not all light sources are created equal even if they include the same bulb and ballast.

-John-

 

[falcon41176]

were ca i get some good reflectors that want break my wallet

 

[Wiskey]

There are better ones out there, like lumanarks, but the parobolic reflectors from hellolights.com will work far better than what you have, and they are not too expensave. They are basically the "spider" reflectors by a diffrent name.

Another way to about double the amount of light you have is to replace your 20K bulbs, with XM 10K's. If you look at the par readings for both bulbs (sticky in the equiptment section) you will find the 10K's put out far more, but you don't get the cool blue look.

Whiskey

 

[BobB]

My 90G sps reef is lit with 2-250w 15KK MH plus 4-110w Actinics. As it is, I think I have more than enough light. I run the actinics for 12 h, the MHs for 6 hrs, with both on 4 hrs.

Bob

 

[dweakl01]

Josh,

Your tank looks great as-is. I think you should give the pair of 175s to me.