Beautiful BEAUTIFUL TANK!!!
I am starting a new tank and was going to go old school, MH/t5 I love how your Kessils look. I have a 220 72x24x30" deep. How many kessils and which one W or N would I need? I am cycling so I don't need light yet, but I am thinking and wondering what to do. I thought about getting one Kessil in the center and a few t5 for now, then add more later. Obviously I would not be able to grow SPS on the sides...
Any lighting suggestions/recommendations you would give for a new tank on a budget?
Hi Russ, CONGRATS!! Sounds like a sweet project.
So at 30" deep..........you ABSOLUTELY need to go with the NARROW version of the kessil. My tank is 26" deep and I run 5 Kessil A350 Narrow's accross the 84" span. Each about 13" (ish) apart. I run them at 100% white and 100% blue for 7 hours a day. I keep them approx 9" off the water and I have coral that is actually growing OUT of the water (green slimer). I am able to keep some LPS under these lights as well, however they need to be very low, and NOT directly under the lights.
As for my recommendation? I have a LOT of light on my tank, and it hasn't seemed to cause any problems. If you want an SPS heavy / dominant tank.......I would go with 3 A360 narrows. One in the center and two off to the sides...........I would also consider putting two A360 wides between the narrows. This will brighten up the tank, and give you a wider spread throughout........you would probably NOT need any additional, or "supplemental" lighting with this setup.
Your rockwork will also be a consideration. I have very tall "spire" like pieces. I placed each narrow between the spires so the shallow sections were not directly under the light. This allows the light to go all the way to the bottom of the tank. I also took the center light and brought it forward to compensate for the overflow box, as well as allow the light to hit the front of the rock structure all the way down. If you put it too close, it will shadow really badly. Kind of hard to explain without looking at it in person.
You could get away with 4 lights........two narrows, and two wides if you plan your rockwork / layout right. Narrows over the lower areas that you want SPS, and wides over the taller area's for SPS and to give more spread / brighter overall tank lighting. Just how I would do it. Obviously you can do it in stages.......get a couple lights to start out, and add when you have the money, or when your corals start to need it. The first year of cycling, you will enjoy fun colors and a little growth on your corals, but once the tank really stabilizes
..........Ie.....you get your alk, calcium and mag all dialed in, and it remains stable.........your corals will go CRAZY!! that is when you really want the light. You want to maximize the growth. My tank is 3 years in now, and the growth is WAY faster than initially.
I probably just gave you more questions than answers, but I am happy to try to answer any more this may have caused. LOL! Good luck on the project. Here is a better illistration of how my lights are layed out.
