Lighting recommendations

[Raven63630]

Need a little help, I just upgraded to a 220 gallon and am trying to figure out the lighting for it. I currently have a 125 gallon and have been running an Aqualight Pro 3x150mh, 4x96pc, I want to at least go to 250mh. Would I be better off getting pendants? or sticking with a complete fixture?

 

[Raven63630]

Any lighting guru's out there that can give me some suggestions?

 

[commonstranger]

I agree I would go with 250's. It really depends on the set up I think Raven. I mean if your building a custom canopy I would go retro. No canopy I might go just with a complete fixture. Or you could go with the pendants w/ or w/out a canopy. If I went with pendants I would suggest getting the ones that come with T5s or PC light made into them along with fans and moonlights. Thats what Im doing on my new 60 gallon but I will say they arent cheap. But for me I want to do things right and not cut many corners if I can help it. Dont know if this helped out or not just my two cents worth.

 

[NeveSSL]

Pendants vs. complete fixtures is completely up to you.

Do you have a canopy already? If not, then maybe complete would be the way to go. If so, maybe pendants and retrofit kits would work best.

Personally, I'm not sure 250w MH's are going to reach the bottom very well of your tank. It may not be an issue, depending on what corals you want where, but 400w may do a lot better for things on the sandbed (assuming your 220 is the standard 30" deep).

At the same time, I'm not a lighting guru. I am, however, a T5HO fan, but they also don't do real well down to 30" I don't think. I can say that mine do great at 24", though. I have a crocea who has been very happy on my sandbed with T5s. If I put it any higher up, it bleaches out!

Hope this helps at least some.

Brandon

 

[waynesworld]

my t5's work in my 30" tank but if you want to stay with mh the lumanark is the best reflector to use but you pay for them

 

[andywe]

I like MH for 24-30". Check out the coralife Elite hoods. Screaming dealas right now. I bought one after talking with Chris at AC and he could not touch Drsfostersmith price of 699 for 3x250-10K MH + 2-96w 03 Actinics...and a week later the coralife rep gave chris the same pricing. It;s a screaming deal for a 72" and will light your tank well.

BTW, 48: are as low as 399 with 2x250MH 10k.

 

[DMBillies]

More information about your situation might be helpful, but I will say that pendants have a major drawback in not allowing easy actinic supplementation. Having only actinics burning for a bit before/after your light cycle is a really neat effect and having actinics to supplement gives you more options for fine-tuning the overall color the lighting.

 

[Raven63630]

Thanks for the input everyone,
I plan on just having an open top, no canopy or glass covers on a standard 220.
Hammers, Torch, Zoas and such on bottom .
I'd like to be able to keep SPS and LPS and was hoping I wouldn't have to go with 400w Halides. Maybe a clam or 2.

 

[ds4x4]

if your going open top and have 18" available above then go with the Lumenbrights and you won't have any problem with 250watt.. they need to be 16"s off the water from the bulb.. I would use them on mine but i'm using a canopy with 72" VHO's