How deep is too deep & which lamp/ reflector?

[Marco67]

Helping a friend design a rather large tank.
Footprint will be ~12'x 5', he is VERY interested in having it as deep as possible. As much as 4-5' .

Is anyone running the new 400 DEs over a tank like this?
Or maybe the Lumenarc IIIs with 1000s?

What is the effective depth of light penetration on these guys?



* I know heat, maintenance and flow issues add up exponentially with depth and lighting like this.Right now we are interested in finding a workable depth from a lighting perspective, then we can sort through the rest.*

Thanks for the imput

 

[danskim]

I think 400w is good to about 3'. The 1000w will definitely be enough for 5' I'm pretty sure.

 

[nyvp]

problem with 1k watters is lack of choices. the 250/400 range has so many more choices. I hear a lot go with the dual 400's in one reflectors.

 

[Marco67]

I hear ya on the lack of choices, although I see the iwasaki 65s are available so if it came down to it some other lighting to adjust color would be acceptable.

For the choice of color temp it would be nice to stay with 400s even SEs with Lumenarc but that goes back to the original question...Depth limitations?

 

[nyvp]

I would say stay under 36" for a reef tank and use 400's. if your not keeping sps then the light isnt as a big deal

 

[KurtsReef]

I just installed the Luminarc III's with 400w bulbs and keep having too move corals down due too their not liking the intensity of the light they are getting. They were previously all under a 400w MH and 400 watts of PC lighting in a 75g, the new setup has (3) 400w MH bulbs covering 2' each of a 6' tank with no other lighting.

No light meters to measure it with, however the luminarcs seem too put out more intense light than the spider reflector I was using AND 400 additional watts of light from the PC bulbs.

 

[Marco67]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10600273#post10600273 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by KurtsReef
I just installed the Luminarc III's with 400w bulbs and keep having too move corals down due too their not liking the intensity of the light they are getting. They were previously all under a 400w MH and 400 watts of PC lighting in a 75g, the new setup has (3) 400w MH bulbs covering 2' each of a 6' tank with no other lighting.

Thanks Kurt,
Whats the depth of your tank?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10600273#post10600273 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by KurtsReef

No light meters to measure it with, however the luminarcs seem too put out more intense light than the spider reflector I was using AND 400 additional watts of light from the PC bulbs.

I love them, in many cases I've been able to go from 400s to 250s when upgrading to the Lumenarcs
I have a 125 holding system right now with spiders on each end and a LAIII in the center all with XM 10Ks and you would swear there is a different bulb (400) in that center position.

 

[Marco67]

oops hit quote instead of edit

 

[KurtsReef]

Here is a photo I took while installing the lights, you can see on the far right sitting sideways on the new tank is the lid from the old 75g tank with the 10k hamilton bulb (400w) on inside it. The next fixture too the left (in the middle) has a reflux 12k bulb that was just turned on and the fixture too the far left has a reflux 12k bulb that has been on for about 10 minutes...

If you would like I could take a shot with just the middle bulb on if you would like too see the light spread from one luminarc III and a 400w MH

The luminarcs are large reflectors but appear to me to be very effective.

Edited to actually attach the image...that helps when you reference a photograph

 

[Marco67]

Thanks for the offer on the photos but I have lumenarchs with 400s on tanks up to 32" deep and I agree they are awesome. My concern is how do they do going the extra 20-30" to 48-60" deep?

Now if you have pics of them over a 4' tank? That would be super

 

[KurtsReef]

I guess I could hold one sideways and see how deep into the 6 feet they went