What MH wattage to buy?

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Draggoneggs the thought is I mh bulb for every 2 ft. of tank length, at sixty inches you are 5 ft., if it was mine and I could afford it I would deffindently go with 3 400's, but for sure 400's. You can go 250's but you are going to end up with alot of things high on the reef in my opinion. If you want to spend the bucks and get luminarcs you could probably use just 2 400's.:)
 
You only need the 400s if you are going to keep high light animals lower than midway down your tank. If you are putting the LPS lower and SPS/clams higher, you'll be fine with 250s (IMO). 400s are great at getting lots of light low in the tank (and lots of heat into the tank as well).

250s work great. If it was me I would spend my money on the luminarc reflectors and get 250W halides. You will get more light into the tank with the reflectors and less heat with the 250s.
 
I think he could get two LIII's with 250W Mh & rock that tank! Basically that is what I'm doing on my new tank, even though it is only 25" deep.
 
That hood has only 150's in it and at 30" deep that well be enough if you want to keep softies only. I don't think 150's are enough for any acros or cklams unless you put them right on top of the reef. So I guess if that is what you wish to do it well work fine.
 
WOW!!! That's a lot of money.

here's what I would do with that money:
2 Luminarc reflectors @ $130 ea = 260
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica][SIZE=-1]1 Sun System Blue Wave VII Remote Assembled Dual HQI Ballast (Runs Double Ended Metal Halide Lamps) about $225
VHO or T5 ballast & endcaps (retrofit kit) about $150

total without bulbs $635

This would give you a far superior system in my opinion. Granted you'd have to mount it up in the hood yourself and it wouldn't necessarily be as "pretty" as that setup, but much better bang for your buck.
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Since you specifically stated that you don't want to do sps or clams then you will be fine, but at almost $700 for that hood you could get all kinds of lighting, that would be my biggest question to your choice. If that is what you want to do then go right ahead, just remember that if your opinion of sps changes you will be upgrading your hood. I don't think I would want to upgrade something that expensive to begin with.

Tim
 
reedman said:
You only need the 400s if you are going to keep high light animals lower than midway down your tank. If you are putting the LPS lower and SPS/clams higher, you'll be fine with 250s (IMO). 400s are great at getting lots of light low in the tank (and lots of heat into the tank as well).

250s work great. If it was me I would spend my money on the luminarc reflectors and get 250W halides. You will get more light into the tank with the reflectors and less heat with the 250s.
Click to expand...

I wanted clams on the bottom (I think) and I don't want to be too fancy with my rockscape in order to have lots of locations near the top of the tank. This is an island tank so I will have four sided viewing. This makes it more difficult to pile a lot of LR up high in the tank (I would imagine).

Maybe two 250s with two 96W actinic CF is what I need/want? Does this sound like it would limit me on the bottom half?
 
dragoneggs said:
I wanted clams on the bottom (I think) and I don't want to be too fancy with my rockscape in order to have lots of locations near the top of the tank. This is an island tank so I will have four sided viewing. This makes it more difficult to pile a lot of LR up high in the tank (I would imagine).

Maybe two 250s with two 96W actinic CF is what I need/want? Does this sound like it would limit me on the bottom half?
Click to expand...

I think if you want to put clams on the bottom you might want to stay with 400w. It also depends on what kind of clams you want down there, some have lower light requirements than others, I just think you would be safer going with 400's. Of course there is also the info that Reed posted about the luminarc reflectors and 250w. However, I would love to see a tank like that with 400's using luminarc's.

Tim
 
If you plan on keeping any maxima's down on the bottom and with 30" of water depth you probably well ned 400's. I think there are other high light requiring clams also, I don't know for sure since all I have are maimas. I definently don't think that that light hood well be anywhere near enough with your depth with 250's. You might could use 250's with luminarc's but not anything else and keep clams on the bottom. I have found that everytime I try to save a few dollars and buy on the margin of something I end up not being happy and buying what I should have bought to begin with.
 
This is turning out to be a very interesting thread.

What's the advantage of going for a fixture with or without PCs as well as MH, like in the one I linked to? Is it just to give the dawn/dusk effect?
If so, how important is that?

I don't have a canopy high enough to use a retro kit, so I need something ready to go and that doesn't look unsightly or there will be sanctions for me at home :)
Something similar to this perhaps? http://www.aquariumlight.com/product_info.php?dbid=138

All suggestions welcome.
 
This is getting confusing, we are talking about two different tanks, one (Recife's) with softies looking at using a 2 x 150w mh plus pc's, and one (dragoneggs) with clams using something bigger, I don't think you (dragoneggs) have specified what light you want at this point, am I right?
Anyway just trying to clear things up for myself.

Tim
 
Tim's got a good point.

Dragoneggs, could you post a new thread for us to give advice in for your specific setup so as not to confuse the two on this thread (as I already have;).
 
Yeah it is Recife if all you want to keep are softies then that light hood would be fine in my opinion and well make your better half happy, that accounts for alot of your decision, but understand that acros and clams well pretty much be out of the question in the future, but there are alot of really nice softie tanks.
Draggoneggs you need 400's or might could squeeze by with 2 250's with luminarcs. JMO
 
moortim said:
This is getting confusing, we are talking about two different tanks, one (Recife's) with softies looking at using a 2 x 150w mh plus pc's, and one (dragoneggs) with clams using something bigger, I don't think you (dragoneggs) have specified what light you want at this point, am I right?
Anyway just trying to clear things up for myself.

Tim
Click to expand...
Yes... I apologize to Recife for somewhat jacking this thread but I thought throwing my questions in here would help us both. My tank is 60x24x30 acrylic Island tank (four sided viewing) The canopy will be home built with power feed through tank! I am planning on SPS/LPS and a few clams and maybe a few fish. I have all kinds of challenges here but i am focusing on lighting now. I like the 14K light and was thinking that 2 250MH with 2 96W actinics.

If this is causing confusion talking about both setups, I welcome folks to jump over to my other thread "Help with island tank design" http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14874 to continue the discussion relative to my specific setup.

I have some nice tank stand construction pics here and am now working on plumbing and lighting design.

Thanks for everyone's help.
 
Recife,

the dusk/dawn thing is more for eye appeal than health of the inhabitants. If you like it it's important, otherwise...not important. You can use that fixture you linked to and if you decide you want some supplemental lighting for transitiion from black to MH and back then you can add T5s, VHOs, or PCs later. Not a big deal.
 
Oh yea guys, & this is for either tank, someone said hey I like the 14k's yea the colors are great but rather loose the PAR IMO I'd stick to 10K's & get actinic fluorescents whichever you get the fluorescents will give you the beautiful blend your eyes will like but that is me, in a 30g tank you'll need or want that extra kick, again JMO!
 
Scooterman said:
someone said hey I like the 14k's yea the colors are great but rather loose the PAR IMO I'd stick to 10K's & get actinic fluorescents whichever you get the fluorescents will give you the beautiful blend your eyes will like but that is me, in a 30g tank you'll need or want that extra kick, again JMO!
Click to expand...
Yeah that was me liking the 14K but I wasn't thinking about the actinics which I plan to add so I will take your comment and run with it.

I am trying to beg off this thread... please follow my tank design adventure at:

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14874&page=2

Thank you!
 
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