Need lighting help for 10'x4'x3' FO

[ccole]

Looking for dawn to dusk simulation with some shimmer at peak viewing periods; moonlighting at the least with moon phases, etc. a plus.

Will have an Aquacontroller, but I know some units come with their own controllers.

Please help!

 

[Psionicdragon]

shimmering only works if you use metal halides. I don't know how much money you want to spend on electricity especially if you are running a fish only tank.

If you decide to go with halides, think about Lumenarcs. They have good reflection rate and cover a huge area. Look for sanjay's website on light comparison and it should be under articles for the review.

I have a 8' x 2' x 2.5' or 3' (l x w x h). Two lumenarcs position correctly lights up the whole tank minus a couple inch from each side. Three would've light up the tank with ease.

If halides aren't your cup of tea, you can go with cheap t5 or home depot workshop lights (i think thats what it is called). Its cheap and effective. Theres a site with mix reviews that sell cheap t5s.

 

[ccole]

Thanks Psionicdragon....... Good tips.

Anyone else have idea?

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[caferacermike]

Mr Dragon I'd like to hear more about your lighting. My current 75g has 500w metal halide running for 6 hours a day and 20w pC running for 12. They obviously overlap and for 6 hours I have almost 10wpg. I just bought a 400g 7' tank to be set up as a reef. I'm not getting many answers in my thread in regards to lighting. I certainly cannot afford to run 4,000 w of light so I was seriously thinking about 3 or 4 250w DE in Lumenarc reflectors using Icecap ballasts. What type of tank is your 8 footer and what is the wattage in your 2 Lumenarc reflectors? Do you think 1,000w Mh Pheonix 14K for 6 hours would do nicely in a 7x3x3 reef? I'm into SPS but plan on only having them no deeper than 12" and keeping LPS and softies below that level.