Lighting recommendations for my new tank

[Kissfan79]

Hey guys....
I just purchased a 75 gallon setup and am doing my research on lighting systems for it. I was wondering about what kind of light output I will need for what I want to keep in terms of corals. The tank is a standard 75 gallon at 48" long by 20" high by 18" deep. I will want to keep mushrooms, softies such as leathers, and LPS such as frogspwan, torch, candy cane, etc. I don't really have any interest in SPS corals. Should I still look at metal halide or just go with T-5 setups? How many watts would be optimal and how many watts would be approaching too many for what I want to keep? I have seen some 760 watt setups but was thinking that might be too much. Any thoughts or opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Jim

 

[danch]

FWIW, I settled on 5x54W T5 for my 75G LPS (to-be) system. When all tubes are on, the top rocks (still under maybe 9 inches of water) are quite well illuminated.

 

[Phong33]

Will you be doing a fixture or retro? If you go with a retro, I'd starte with 4x54w T5 and when you venture onto more light demanding corals, you just simply add more bulbs to your canopy.

 

[messina06]

retro is a great way to go or Sunlight Supply has a nice t-5 fixture that is pretty sleek (choose of 4, 6, 8 bulbs)

 

[Kissfan79]

I'll probably go with a fixture set up with either all T-5's or a metal halide/PC actinic combo.

Jim

 

[ahullsb]

http://www.marineandreef.com/shoppro/metal_OuterOrbit3.htm

I have these and love them! You can keep anything. If you don't think you need the mh's much you can use the t5's instead. They are on separate switches. If it gets too hot this summer I am going to switch the actinics with day bulbs and barely run the mh's. Plus with these you have moonlights to watch at night!

 

[Kissfan79]

Any more thoughts or opinions as to go with metal halides, T-5's, or a combo?

Jim

 

[silverking]

metal halides

 

[mheaven]

i would go with mh combo. it works great for me.

 

[sabbath]

I have the same tank with most items you mentioned and love the look of Metal Halide. Look at a tank with MH and t5 live before you buy. MH have a natural look that can not be replicated buy a fluorescent bulb. they also take up a lot of space. Making it harder to work on IMO.

 

[Henry Bowman]

This is what I have. Dont miss the MH "shimmer" and it will grow / keep anything you want. It Draws around 350 Watts and will fit over your tank. I have mine on the legs built for it. I have run MH setups in the past and my chiller ran more, running up the elecric bill. Now my chiller comes on maybe every 2-3 hours for 15-20 minutes in the middle of the day. I have a 1/3hp on a 90gl tank.

Like sabbath said, take a look before you buy. Another idea is that with T5's it's easy to change bulb combos to get the "look" you want. If you do T5's you are going to want at least 4 bulbs with good individual reflectors. Purchasing a T5 without good reflectors is about the same as lighting a tank with PC's.

www.aquariumspecialty.com/catalog/p...ts_id=1088&osCsid=6f748dfc632d76914969a0cf068

 

[Kissfan79]

Thanks for all of the replies. I appreciate the info.

Jim

 

[k3vi17ma1]

rule of thumb is 3-4 watts per gallon of water. i would go with pc

 

[k3vi17ma1]

rule of thumb is 3-4 watts per gallon of water. i woyld go with pc, i mxiture of true actinics and daylight.

 

[sabbath]

I do not agree that MH make more heat. It is just in one area instead stretched out over 4'. Here is a link and a quote on it.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=550860

Ok, we see how they work but which is best? Well I'm not going to tell, so there! Actually both types make fine lighting for a reef tank and there is a lot of misinformation about the differences between the two. This centers on that the fluorescent lights are a continuum source while MH is a point source.

A big myth is that MH lights are much hotter than fluorescents. That is really not so. A bank of 500 watts in fluorescents puts out around the same heat as 500 watts of metal halides. The fluorescent tubes spread that heat over the entire length of the tube. A MH light concentrates the heat in a small area. This aids in the belief that they create more heat. The light output is also overstated for a MH. Many say that they produce much more light than a fluorescent (s) of the same wattage. This is just the same as the heat. The fluorescent spreads the light out while the MH emits it in a small area. Sure it looks much brighter but if you add up the total illumination for the fluorescent there is not that much difference.