What do you think (lighting)

[Zacktosterone]

A 72x30x26 reef tank with A 5 foot giesemann spectra (yes they make them) with 2x400 watt halides and 4 80 watt t5s with an additional 2 2x80 watt gisemann razors making a total of 2x400 watt halides and 8 80 watt t5s

3 coral plus
3 blue plus
2 true actinic

2 400 watt radiums

 

[Fish4life28]

This Is what I think lol

 

[Zacktosterone]

Lol in terms of the amount of light

 

[reefmutt]

That sounds like my old tank. It was 60x42x26.
It had 9x80w t5, 6x250w mh plus 4 more 70w mh as accent lighting.
Corals were haaaaaaapy.
But probably overkill..

 

[Bpb]

I think it's going to look spectacular. Though it might be a touch high on par


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[Zacktosterone]

That sounds like my old tank. It was 60x42x26.
It had 9x80w t5, 6x250w mh plus 4 more 70w mh as accent lighting.
Corals were haaaaaaapy.
But probably overkill..

I'm using half of that lol

 

[reefmutt]

You won't even need mh. But if they go on for a couple hours a day. The corals will probably respond nicely.

 

[Wiskey]

If it were me, and you wanted to run MH - I would go with 3, 400W MH (one every 2 foot) with 36" T5's, probably 8 of them for Atinic blue supplement. I would do this all in retrofits into a 2 foot tall canopy so the MH was about 12-18" up and the atinics were at an angle 6" or so up so they don't block the MH light.

My own tank was 72x24x24 and I used (back about 10 years ago) 3x250W (XM 10k) MH with Luminark reflectors and 6 55W PC, but these days T5 is a much better option.

If you already have all these lights then what you propose will probably work, but you will struggle to get even lighting across the tank in which case just be aware of the high light areas and place corals accordingly.

Whiskey

 

[Wiskey]

P.S. My current tank is a 48x24x18 (I'm married now so the tank got smaller) and uses all T5. It sounds like you wanted MH which is why I laid it out that way. You could also do all 5' T5's and keep the edges for moties.

Whiskey

 

[biggles]

Pretty much the same thing i run Zack, the only downside is you will never be able to blame your lights if you have sh$tty colors mate........ :beer:

 

[Zacktosterone]

Pretty much the same thing i run Zack, the only downside is you will never be able to blame your lights if you have sh$tty colors mate........ :beer:

Nice! You run 2 400 watt halides over a 72" span?

@wisky. Tonnes of input ty

 

[jda]

I have a 7 foot tank and 6 foot fixture. If you arrange your stuff like biggles did with open ends, then the extra 6 inches is just fine. It bothered me and I put a 150W HQI on both ends of mine and grew more stuff.

If you think that you can handle the 6" on the ends being open, then go for it. If you think that it might get to you, then get a 6' fixture with 3x MH.


IMO, 2x 400W is more than enough with 8 T5s.

FWIW, there are awesome acropora that do well with less light... your dragons, lokani and some grannies. You can always do these on the edges.

 

[Zacktosterone]

I have a 7 foot tank and 6 foot fixture. If you arrange your stuff like biggles did with open ends, then the extra 6 inches is just fine. It bothered me and I put a 150W HQI on both ends of mine and grew more stuff.

If you think that you can handle the 6" on the ends being open, then go for it. If you think that it might get to you, then get a 6' fixture with 3x MH.


IMO, 2x 400W is more than enough with 8 T5s.

FWIW, there are awesome acropora that do well with less light... your dragons, lokani and some grannies. You can always do these on the edges.

That's a good point.
My main concern is the reflectors in my giesemann. I'm not worried if I add the extra t5s though in terms of growth

 

[ifarmer]

Pretty much the same thing i run Zack, the only downside is you will never be able to blame your lights if you have sh$tty colors mate........ [emoji481]

I feel like somene just stacking alot of colonies together. Corals dont grow like that.

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[reefmutt]

I feel like somene just stacking alot of colonies together. Corals dont grow like that.

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You come into a thread about lighting to say this??

 

[C.Eymann]

I feel like somene just stacking alot of colonies together. Corals dont grow like that.

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Andrew is a pretty well respected SPS keeper on here and I really enjoy his posts, humor and the information he shares.

I find this comment rude, disrespectful and without foundation.

:thumbdown

 

[Zacktosterone]

I enjoy Andrew's posts too and love his tank but the rock does look like a bunch of small colonies put together. Mind you the colours on those colonies is amazing as well as the obvious health and condition. I'm sure the post wasn't meant to offend it was just an observation as rude as it could be seen as.

 

[biggles]

I don't make any secret of the fact i can't grow acros fast to save myself, over the years i guess i've adjusted the way i place acros closer and closer together because i know they won't branch over each other quickly.
I like trying to make an over the top display of acros and colors surrounded by white sand and none of my scapes will ever look like anything you would see in the ocean, i showed the pic to demonstrate that Zack's lighting choice would give him good color results imo.
He would also be able to place acros wherever he wanted from the sand up as this unnatural scape pic shows........ just look away if it offends you as badly as the other pic

Remember back when i discovered there was lots of copper in salifert trace hard - pastel city lol........... thank you all for the nice posts guys, i appreciate them a great deal

The two 400W Radiums hang over a 60" x 32" footprint Zack.

 

[Zacktosterone]

I don't make any secret of the fact i can't grow acros fast to save myself, over the years i guess i've adjusted the way i place acros closer and closer together because i know they won't branch over each other quickly.
I like trying to make an over the top display of acros and colors surrounded by white sand and none of my scapes will ever look like anything you would see in the ocean, i showed the pic to demonstrate that Zack's lighting choice would give him good color results imo.
He would also be able to place acros wherever he wanted from the sand up as this unnatural scape pic shows........ just look away if it offends you as badly as the other pic

Remember back when i discovered there was lots of copper in salifert trace hard - pastel city lol........... thank you all for the nice posts guys, i appreciate them a great deal

The two 400W Radiums hang over a 60" x 32" footprint Zack.

I'm super impatient as well.... Not the best trate for this hobby (understatement of the year) your colours are outstanding