Please help with my large tank lighting

[Harleyguy]

My plans changed a little and I bought a smaller tank than I planed, I'll get into that later. The new tank is 96"x48"x36" 720g and I'm having a really hard time deciding on how to light it. I want SPS so I know I need bright light, here are my options.

1. 4 400W MH with Lumenarc III reflectors and 12 54W T5's

Arranged like this:

_____ _____
_____ _____
_____ _____
X X X X
_____ _____
_____ _____
_____ _____


2. 8 400W MH with Icecap reflectors HQI Bulbs and IceCap Hqi Dimmable Ballasts and 10 54W T5's

The thought here would be to run the T5's the whole time the MH's are on and 1 hour before and after. The MH's would start out dimmed for 3 hours then 100% for 4 hours the dimmed for 3 hours (dimming cuts power to 50%) effectively even though I have a ton of light I'm not using any more power than the 4 MH's running 11 hours a day.

Arranged like this

||x||x||x||x||
||x||x||x||x||

3. Load as many T5's as I can put over the tank. Do I really need to draw a bunch of lines???

I'd love to hear comments, opinions and suggestions.

Thanks

 

[ReefingBuddha]

I am a big fan of the lumenarc's these days as they are working very well for me, great light coverage.

The idea of the dimmable ballast sounds awesome but you still have to replace all those bulbs and it would be more complicated and more maintenance but you would definitely not have any problem meeting your lighting needs. Also those 8 400's would probably cook your water pretty good for a few hours bring up your cooling costs up.

And all T5's sounds great as well and I am becoming more and more convinced that a SPS tank can be well lit with them considering some of the great tanks you see these days with only t5's. But I have had no experience myself only use them so I can't give any first hand advice with this.



I know that doesn't help much but it definitely falls into comments, opinions and suggestions. Good luck man, looking forward to this beast and what your going to do with it.

 

[Harleyguy]

I'm really torn here... Like you, I really like the Lumenarc reflectors, but on a 48" wide tank there is just sooo much of the tank that is not being covered. And the spots that the 400's are over are usually the highest points on the reef, so I'm basically cooking the reef... I could be way off here. The second option is looking more and more appealing to me, I have thought about the cooling aspect, and I figure it would cause me to have to gat a chiller that is perhaps 1 size larger, but the Tradewinds chillers are so efficient that it's hardly noticeable. The bulbs would end up costing me about an extra $400 a year; I figure I might get a little longer life out of the bulbs as well... I would actually be using less T5's, but that's like saying I'm going to breathe a little less, it doesn't make much of a difference.

As for using T5's for the whole tank. My concern would be the tank height. I haven't seen anyone doing SPS with just T5's on a tank 36" I'm just not sure they would have the penetrating power.
.

 

[ReefingBuddha]

Its a hard decision to make without trying a few options and is going to be hard getting good light coverage on a tank that wide, two reflects front back would definitely do it but that's a whole lot of lighting overall. You could also put the strip of 4 luminarcs down the center with a bunch of t5's front and back to fill in the extra area. As most of the area in the front and back will probably be over water the intense light would not be needed as much and might give a nice sense of depth. Put that's just brainstorming, not exactly sure.

The second options would give you the most flexibility and would definitely not be under lit. I have a tradewinds chiller waiting for me as well as I have heard nothing but great things about them. As the lights would not be at 100% all the time the water might not heat up that much either as you would have a significant buffer zone with that much water volume.

I didn't think about the tank being 36" deep, t5's would probably not do the job then. The tank I have now is 36" deep and the 400w in lumenarc's is plenty good to keep clams and hard corals in any part of the tank. The lowest SPS I have is 6" off the bottom and doing well. At first I was worried about the depth and how much extra effort it would be for maintenance but its really not bad plus I really really like the look of having so much vertical room. A tank like that would look more proportionate at that depth as well... good buy and I'm looking forward to some pictures.

 

[ReefingBuddha]

btw about cooking the reef, my highest coral is about 10" from the surface and I would not want to put it any higher as I think it would not like any more light. It is directly under a bulb though.

 

[Harleyguy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12050726#post12050726 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by thirschmann
btw about cooking the reef, my highest coral is about 10" from the surface and I would not want to put it any higher as I think it would not like any more light. It is directly under a bulb though.

That was actually my fear about putting the Lumenarc's right down the middle with the T5's on the sides... I think I'm fairly sold on the 8 MH idea; I just need to hear back from Neptune systems to see if my Aquacontroller III Pro will dim these Ballasts...

 

[ricks]

Harleyguy,

I run (6) 20k 400's on HQI's, on my 96 x 36 x 36. Along with (4) 160 VHO actinic and (4) 96 watt 50-50 PC's I get good light coverage and I find the color pleasing.

You should be able to get by with (8) on your 750, why did you decide to downsize???

 

[cbui2]

i have the same exact display but 30"H
here's how i did mine, i was limited what i could do with large eurobrace. LA3 has some serious spread

3 LA3 19.5" x 19.5" rear
3 reef optix v front
8 VHO 36" and 3 72"

 

[Nanook]

Hmmm, if this was my tank, I would do 8 Luminarc III or similar reflectors and run a mix of Iwasaki 400w bulbs and Radium 400w bulbs without any actinic lighting due to the depth.

 

[cbui2]

Nanook that would be nice if he didn't have any type of eurobrace, but for the size display and going acrylic will need to work around the bracing.

 

[wizsmaster]

I'd look into the feasibility & $ factor for all T5's.

I changed from all T5's to all MHs ... i'll be changing back to T5's once i get some other projects taken care off here.
My tank is 30" deep, and I kept 6 clams happy ... 4 of them were on, or buried in the sandbed for close to a year, and grew rapidly.

 

[Harleyguy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12051961#post12051961 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cbui2
i have the same exact display but 30"H
here's how i did mine, i was limited what i could do with large eurobrace. LA3 has some serious spread

3 LA3 19.5" x 19.5" rear
3 reef optix v front
8 VHO 36" and 3 72"

I'm surprised that you have good coverage over 96" with only 3 MH's... What do you think of the LA3 Mini's? I could do 6 Mini's and several T5's or VHO's...

Several people have recommended going the VHO rout, but I'm just not sure. I agree the VHO's will give my better POP, but the T5's will give me more PAR... And their color isn't that bad...

 

[Harleyguy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12052713#post12052713 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Nanook
Hmmm, if this was my tank, I would do 8 Luminarc III or similar reflectors and run a mix of Iwasaki 400w bulbs and Radium 400w bulbs without any actinic lighting due to the depth.

I considered doing this, but I'm concerned about a rainbow effect. I just envision my bulbs like this:
XOXO
OXOX

X= 14K Aquaconnect
O= 20K Ushio

I'm afraid that my tank would look like a checker board.

If I were going to do this I think I would go with 250 Hqi and run 16 reflectors (basically 8 pairs of 2) each pair would have a 14K and a 20K or maybe a 10K and a 20K. In stead of dimming I could run the 20K's in the morning then all lights mid day then 20K or 10K in evening... I'm just nor sure I'd have the penetration... I should Heck that's 500W's at each spot, I could go with less expensive ballasts, and reflectors, the bulbs are cheaper... Can you tell I'm brainstorming...? LOL

I guess it would look like this:


xx xx xx xx
xx xx xx xx

 

[KenT]

On my 535, 96*40*32 I had 2 rows of halides. 3 400w 20K in the front and 3 250 6500K along the back. The tank looked absolutely stunning!!!

 

[Harleyguy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12053975#post12053975 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by KenT
On my 535, 96*40*32 I had 2 rows of halides. 3 400w 20K in the front and 3 250 6500K along the back. The tank looked absolutely stunning!!!

I have heard of a lot of people doing this (staggering the wattage front to back) but because my tank is a peninsula and viewable from the two long sides and 1 end I don't think the different wattages will work here.

Now I could do 9 MH's 3 LA3's down the center 3 250's on each side offset just a bit. I could run 10K on the LA3's and 20K's or 22K's on the 250's


x x x
x x x
x x x

 

[Harleyguy]

The X's are supposed to be offset like this

...x...x...x
X...X...X...
...x...x...x

 

[ReefingBuddha]

I like that idea. A whole lot of equipment and toys.

 

[Harleyguy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12054102#post12054102 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by thirschmann
I like that idea. A whole lot of equipment and toys.

Which idea, we have talked about so many... lol

 

[Harleyguy]

Well, I just learned that the IceCap ballasts that I was thinking of using (the dimmable ones) are not made any longer and the new ones don't dim.

So it's a non-dimming option...

 

[cbui2]

Harley, i have total 3 LA3, 3 Reef Optix V and rest VHO's. total 6 400w MH 3 front row and 3 rear row. the eurobrace will be your problems as mine creates a blur image from VHO or even with T5. that's including me cleaning the eurobrace every week if i can redo it all, build the display out of fiberglass and go all MH. this way i have no eurobrace and don't need to work around it.