Lighting suggestions for a 90g

[eledile]

Another question, would it be bad to do a MH and T5 or PC combo for just LPS and Softies?
I MAY put a SPS or two in the tank, but it would be very few if I do..Just wondering if it would be bad to do because I want to try out a MH and see how they work. What do you guys think?

 

[Waddleboy]

Another question, would it be bad to do a MH and T5 or PC combo for just LPS and Softies?
I MAY put a SPS or two in the tank, but it would be very few if I do..Just wondering if it would be bad to do because I want to try out a MH and see how they work. What do you guys think?

no thats actually a really popular combinations and they sell lots of kits like that

 

[Card5]

T5's are the way to go. Can't go wrong,IMO.

 

[eledile]

would they work well for softies and LPS? Like frogspawn, hammers, torches, kenya trees, duncans, ricordeas, xenia, etc..would a MH be too much for them??

Also, the size of he tank has changed as well..I ended up finding my dream cube tank for CHEAP so I bought it. lol It's a 50g with dimensions of 24"x24"x20" so I wouldn't want a MH that is TOO strong like a 250w or anything crazy. how many K's should I go with?

 

[eledile]

also, are MH best when hung a good distance above the water? that seem to be the only way I've seen them..

 

[Mark Bianco]

I ran a dual 175w MH with 130w pc's for several years without any problems on a standard 75gl tank. I also kept clams on the sand bed. I now have led's Anyways the fixture set about 4" off the waterline Just make sure if you go with either of the fixtures you mentioned above acculimate your corals to the new light slowly.

 

[Waddleboy]

also, are MH best when hung a good distance above the water? that seem to be the only way I've seen them..

distance is meant not to burn corals and reduce heat. mh give off a lot of heat and can really turn up the temp on your water. thats why cooling is a key thing with mh

 

[eledile]

Oh okay. So now how much is too much for a tank that is 24"x24"x20"?

I don't want to burn my corals or fish even by getting something that is too much for my tank...I was thinking maybe a 150w at the most..especially if I'm gonna be doing T5's or PC's along with them.

Now how would I do the colors on those? Is a 20k bulb REALLY blue, or is it just tinted blue? Because I don't want it to be too blue all day, but I don't want it to be too white.
For the T5's I was thinking of doing 2 blue plus and 2 purple plus bulbs just to give the different colored corals a nice pop.

How does that sound?