Number of units needed?

[Raoul5Duke]

I was looking for a "ballpark" recommendation for the number of units needed to light a 96"Lx36"Wx24"D tank that will primarily house SPS and LPS corals. Plan on using Gen3 or Gen3 Pros. I currently have 2 Gen2s over a 55 Gallon running parallel with the tank and have gotten excellent results.

 

[ChadRaay86]

four or five (overkill) pros with 120 degree optics going longways front to back. I'm doing three that way on my 72x36x27. Running them 70 percent power with the wider optics was also suggested.

 

[Alex Y EcoTech]

Raoul,

I would recommend using 4 Radions with the Wide Angle Lenses installed on all Radions.

 

[Raoul5Duke]

Thank-you.

 

[mos90]

i basically have the same tank. what rail kit would you use? i am upgrading 2 at a time. mounted longways front to back makes sense.

 

[ChadRaay86]

i basically have the same tank. what rail kit would you use? i am upgrading 2 at a time. mounted longways front to back makes sense.

Yep, but it really depends on your rock work. i have mine long ways because my rock work is very deep from front to back. Some people with big tanks do a long skinny strip of rock across the middle (no idea why). I have three G3 pros with the wide angle lens and it looks great on my 72x36x27. Wife even noticed that it looks much brighter than my previous setup, which had 90 degree lenses.

 

[mos90]

my rock work is about 20" wide for the most part and more towards the rear. i left about 8-10" in the front of the tank open.

do you have a picture of your lights and how you hung them?

 

[ChadRaay86]

From the ceiling, I just anchored a few chains and used the wiring kits from my cheap chinese lights over again. Eventually they'll be in a canopy, but this is the just for now solution

 

[mos90]

ok. i guess its better to hang them individually then use a rail kit . i wonder if 3 could work if i mounted them high enough? then i could use the long rail kits but they would be length wise not front to back.

 

[ChadRaay86]

I'm sure the rail kits could be modified to do that, but you'd still need to buy two mounting kits plus the rail kits. Probably more economic to buy three mounting kits, or even more economical to ghetto rig it like I did

 

[Raoul5Duke]

Check out the modified rail kits people have made using T-slotted aluminum rails from 80/20.net. I plan on using these and then I can slide them around depending on where I need them. If you search on this (ecotech) forum for DIY solutions, one guy even came up with a solution for full X,Y axis ability.