Lighting Help 180 gallon zoanthid tank

[Mrdillpickle]

I am looking at setting up a 180 gallon aga zoanthid dominated tank. I will be converting my 100 gallon zoa tank and my 70 gallon zoa tank into one huge zoa tank. I am having a hard time figuring out what do about the lighting. The tank is going to be built into the wall, so the lighting does not have to be pretty. Here is a list of the lighting I currently have.

260watt pc hood
130watt pc hood
5 x 96 watt pc retros
175 watt halide retro with 20k xm bulb
All the bulbs need replacing.

I might go all halides and us none of the pc's - or - set up pfo parallel reflectors and use the 4x96watt pc retros and purchase new actinic bulbs. I am a little concerned about going with halides. I own several colonies of deep water blue zoa's. I keep them on the bottom of my tank under pc's.

Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated. I really like the idea of going all halides with no supplements. Maybe 2 or 3 x 250watts. I have been looking at the phoenix 14k de, Hamilton 14ks se, and radium 20ks. Reflectors/bulbs/ballasts/supplements/quantity?

Thanks,

Jason

 

[Don Berry]

Normally you would go with 3x250 on a tank that size, but since you aren't looking into SPS you might be ok with 2. I would go with 14K Phoenix. If you want more of a blue look use an electronic ballast. If you want white with a little blue go with magnetic.

 

[MUCHO REEF]

I would go with 4 x 250 watt SE or Reef Optic DE's and a cool running Bluewave II Magnetic ballast. There are a host of good bulbs out there, I suggest going to Sanjay's thread and see what will work best for you. If you're looking for pure growth, you can't go wrong with 10 K's with 2 or 3 six foot super blue VHO actinics, but you will not have the intense coloration that we all strive to achieve.

OR

You could run the 6 ft VHO's for a dust/dawn affect and run 14 or 20K's. The 20's will give you stunning coloration.

Far too much emphasis is placed on bulbs and not on the ballast that will drive them. The goal is to find the optimal combination to achieve your desired expectations, growth and aesthetic appeal. Sounds like a great tank in the making. Good Luck.

Mucho

PS, even with a 180, you could get by with 175 watts x 4 if you are only growing zoos.

 

[Mrdillpickle]

I was considering 4x20k Radiums, Icecaps, Reef Optix Pendants. What do you think? Would it be better to orient them like fig 1 or 2?
https://www.reefgeek.com/products/categories/lighting/104415.htmlT

 

[Mrdillpickle]

- OR -

DE Phoenix bulbs. They plot out very similar to the Radiums. but have a slightly higher par. I have never used DE halide before though?


https://www.reefgeek.com/products/categories/lighting/104670.html

 

[surfnvb7]

for a tank that large, i think you will find most people with tanks that large tend to stay away from DE pendants.

and instead, go for 250w SE mogul type lights, with lumenarc reflectors. a lumenarc reflector will cause an incredible amount of light spread, and make your 250w lights look more like 400's.

thats just my opinion though, not a big fan of DE pendants, the UV glass decreases a ton of the intensity of the bulb, and the reflectors on DE pendants really dont spread light out as much as it does, and mostly just intensifies the light straight down.