enough light ?

[x947]

I'm setting up an old reef tank of mine that I bought many years ago. At the time, I just used the recommendation of the LFS guy for my lighting. I'm using an Ice cap 430 ballast driving 3 4' VHO tubes. How can I tell how many watts this set up is putting out and is this enough for a 90 gallon 22 inch depth (to the bare bottom) acrylic tank ??

thanks
Mike

 

[rtparty]

I'm setting up an old reef tank of mine that I bought many years ago. At the time, I just used the recommendation of the LFS guy for my lighting. I'm using an Ice cap 430 ballast driving 3 4' VHO tubes. How can I tell how many watts this set up is putting out and is this enough for a 90 gallon 22 inch depth (to the bare bottom) acrylic tank ??

thanks
Mike

It all depends on what you want to keep but I would say no. 3 tubes over a 90 gallon tank is not enough for most corals. Some sofites and LPS might work but I wouldn't go overboard.

You could do a couple things IMO.

1) Use 2 VHO Tubes and add 2 Metal Halides to the system. I would probably use 2 - 175w Iwasaki bulbs with some good reflectors.

2) Run 2 VHO tubes and add 4 T5's. Use spec ballasts on the T5's (AccuStart, Triad, Universal, Vossloh Schwabe) Reefgeek will have everything you need.

Hope that helps

 

[x947]

thanks for the input !