I am preparing for my 300g tank (96x30x25) and trying to figure out lighting. I have recently switched to T5s from halides on my 90g and enjoy them but it would take a lot of t5s to cover 96x30 enough to keep clams and some sps. I have looked at 4 250w halides with t5 actinics. Or even 3 400w. Just afraid of heat and the amount of power thats going to draw. Cost is an issue as I am having to do this fairly cheap. What if I did 2 8x54w fixtures... cost and heat would be down, bulb replacement time would suck at 16 bulbs. Would this be enough light for sps in the mid/top of the tank and clams on the bottom? What about 2 6 bulb fixtures such as tek or something of the like. Open for any ideas or suggestions on lighting. I plan to keep mostly softies and some LPS/SPS mix but not much.
Lighting an 8 foot tank
- Thread starter cdeboard
- Start date
Tater11
New member
Well I'm setting up a 96 30 30inch tank now.if you go with 4 250watt halides its only about 150 watts more than 2 8+54 watt t 5's.I will be using 4 250watt halides over mine with the lumatek 250/400 watt ballasts.you can use either 250 or 400 watt bulbs.a watt is a watt weather its a t5 or halide same heat.
I think the 2x8x54 watt t5 setup would be more than enough. I'm currently running an 8x60" fixture over my 300 DD tank and have SPS thriving at the bottom. Trick is make sure you use either a quality fixture or if doing retro good reflectors are a must. If you didn't want quite as much you could probably get away with 2x 6 bulb fixtures but I'd stick with 8 the extra 4 bulbs don't add that much to the bill for as often as you have to replace them.
(2) 6 bulbs wouldnt be too bad. Or even the 2 8's.. Mine would mostly be softies plus my tank will be 2" shallower than the DD so... should theoretically work out. Just afraid of the 30" spread but again its 6" smaller than yours. Think im liking that idea.. now to search retrofits as I think that may be the way to go. Thanks for the input. MLB75 you got pics of your tank?
Bottom line IMO 8 bulbs front to back on a 36" deep tank is fine so the same number over 30" is more than plenty. I honestly think you could do 60" bulbs staggered especially if you went with 10 bulbs, using good reflectors the coverage is way better than you'd think. The other way to think about it is you'd have 10 bulbs over the center 5 feet at which point you can blast sps on the bottom without a doubt (probably in the sump if you had a bare bottom tank and a window through the stand) and on the outside 18" of each side you'd still have 5 bulbs directly and the dispersion of the others which is more than enough to do softies of any kind I know of at that depth. I have no doubt that is the route I'd go if I was in your situation. I was a die hard MH guy for a long time and I'm telling you I'm even more of a believer in T5 now that I've actually tried it. Trick is to get a good fixture or do a higher end retro.
If you're going to have a hood I really think the T5 retro would be the way to go. Not sure 8 would do it since they'd be staggered but I'm positive you'd be happy with 10. The only thing you could notice is depending on bulb selection and placement you may get a little different color from side to side, but even if you did it would be negligible and I'm sure it could be eliminated
5 on each side 80w then you think? so will be 5 foots with a 2 foot overlap in the middle.. would the middle be noticeably brighter? Reason I ask, is my plan originally was to do 4 foot fixtures and just do 2 of them.. as I already have a 4 foot 4 bulb fixture...
but 4 wont be enough for the 30" spread.. so maybe just add another 2 bulb 48" fixture behind it... or even another 4 bulb.. so run (4) 4 bulb fixtures... that would be some nice power.. would be expensive at bulb change time but would be worth it in my opinion compared to halides and electric cost and woudl give a REALLY wide array for color choices. Blah.. LOL will just have to search for several pictures of large t5 tanks.
but 4 wont be enough for the 30" spread.. so maybe just add another 2 bulb 48" fixture behind it... or even another 4 bulb.. so run (4) 4 bulb fixtures... that would be some nice power.. would be expensive at bulb change time but would be worth it in my opinion compared to halides and electric cost and woudl give a REALLY wide array for color choices. Blah.. LOL will just have to search for several pictures of large t5 tanks.
If you use 10 of the 60" bulbs and staggered every other one you'd have 10 bulbs over the center 5 feet and 5 bulbs on the outside 18 inches. I'm using an 8 bulb 60" fixture over my 72x36 inch tank and even though there are NO bulbs over the outside still get enough light to grow caps on the sand. You'd have to talk to other experts but I doubt that you'd even realize the bulbs didn't go all the way across. Remember you're only talking 30" front to back and 5 bulbs plus the cross over from the rest would probably blow you away. The other advantage of the 60" bulbs is you'd have fewer to change and way fewer ballasts to worry about.
Yeah thats what im wondering... if the middle 5 feet would be noticeably brighter than the outside edges... if it would look goofy or not. Yeah 10 bulbs compared to 16... thats a big difference in bulb cost. Hmmm gotta research now. I would love to stick with t5's. Glad to hear they will definately be enough light. Just gotta find the right combo now. Thanks for all the help mlb
thanks and not that it matters but when those pics were taken 5 of the 8 bulbs were a year old... I just replaced the rest this evening but to be honest I don't know that I'll see a difference in the morning. Again not to try to persuade you but I really think the 60" bulbs would be fine for you. Even if you could tell the outside edges were not quite as bright I think it could look like a perfect fade. My next tank will most likely be 96x48 and I have no doubt it will be lit with 60" T5 I'll just be going with 14 bulbs since I'm more interested in SPS at this point.
