Lighting Advice 225g

[Buckeyes12]

I currently have a 90g saltwater reef tank with 2 outer orbit 250W MH with T5 bulbs.. I am upgrading to a 225g and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for what lighting combo I should go with... I'm thinking about doing 2 400W MH but would like to know what the best combo would be for a tank this size if I went with 2 400W MH.... Let me know. Thanks.

 

[KJAhp098]

I'm wondering the same thing

 

[Galtamar]

we need dimensions of the tank and what type of corals are you gonna keep in it

 

[Buckeyes12]

The tank will be 72 x 24 x 30 and will be SPS dominated. It is a Clarity Plus aquarium with two openings at the top

 

[thi7b]

You can go w/ 3-250mh if you keep the SPS on the half top of the tank. My friend have a tank that is 30 tall. His SPS is doing really well under 250mh and his gigas clam is at the bottom. I'm looking to upgrade to the same tank as your. I love the height for fish to swim.

 

[Buckeyes12]

Thanks! The height should be good as well as all the room.. I don't know exactly what I am going to go with yet as far as lighting and such. I'm considering getting the Lumenarc III Mini Stealth De.

Does anybody have any experience with this unit. I would get two of these.

 

[Tangwich]

I just upgraded to a tank with those same exact dimensions and I have 3-250 watt mh with individual reflectors. The fish do love the swimming space, but you might want to consider that it is almost impossible to reach the bottom/sandbed when placing corals or if they fall. Next tank will be more wide than it will be tall. But yes, 3-250watt lights will do the job. I have SPS up top and LPS and clams down towards the bottom.

 

[Dansin]

I like the idea of 2-400 watts. on the outside and a 250 in the middle and supplement the lights with a couple of attinics.

 

[KJAhp098]

I'm thinkin about doing 2 Lumenarc III Mini Stealth DE's. I'd rather not have anything in the middle that could possibly warp the acrylic. Will having 2 of these leave a darker spot in the middle of the tank? I also intend on not having any actinic supplement.

 

[enemec1]

I have a AGA 210 I am about to buy a 400w MH for the center and 2 250w on either side and two 160w attinics to supplement.

 

[KJAhp098]

Thanks, do you know if having 2 400's will leave a darker spot in the middle though?

 

[mcliffy2]

I just got a 12x54w T5 for my 238g, but its a 60x36 footprint. An 8x80w or 12x80w T5 would rock out on your tank. Sfiligoi makes them or you could do an ice cap/tek retro.

 

[vroyzman]

On my 220 tank I ran 3 400 10K and 3 250 20K for the blue ended cutting back to 3 400w ran those for a while and had good growth off of the 20K XM but great color. I would go with 3 400W XM 10Ks and some T5 or VHO for blue for SPS and if you are keeping softies 250W are fine.

 

[spongebobby]

I will be using a Aquactinics 72in Constellation (14x39w T5) on my 210. I can't believe how bright the light looks compared to my 2x250 MH Aquactinics light.

 

[kingsland]

Here is what two MH lights look like. When I was first setting up my 220 in wall, I had two 400 watt XM 10Ks in Lumenarcs running while I waited on a replacement socket for the third. These tanks are deep and unless you are planning to stack rock high up in the tank, IMO you should consider 400 watt. I had to compress the .jpg to post so not the best quality.

 

[NUBIANTANGLOVER]

I have a 265g. It is 84" long and yes, it is at least 32" deep. I decided to run (3) 400w MHalides only. I use XM 20k bulbs becuase I like the nice, crisp blue hue----not too blue and not too white. Just right for me. I purchased a blue-tip 1" frag about 1 month ago and it has already doubled in size! At this point, since my tank is fairly new I do not have any specil devices to maintain calcium levels. Instead, I dose daily with a two-part dosing manually.

 

[NUBIANTANGLOVER]

Here is a photo of my tank:

Of course the blue here is much darker. I admit I am an amateur in correcting to the proper colors with my digital camera.

 

[KJAhp098]

So it seems like running 3 pendants will be the best choice. Since Pheonix doesn't have a 14K bulb, it looks like the XM 12 or 20 K's seem to look how I want them....nice crisp white/blue. Does anybody have any ballast/pendant recommendations? I've still been looking at the Lumenarc III Mini Stealth DE pendant, but I don't know if they can be ran with all types of ballasts and bulbs? Thanks.

 

[kingsland]

I am really satisfied with Ice Cap. They don't generate a lot of heat so mounting them is not an issue. Magnetic ballasts get hot.

 

[cioutlaw]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11850842#post11850842 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by KJAhp098
Since Pheonix doesn't have a 14K bulb

I run 14k Phoenix bulbs, they make em.