Lighting a 48" deep tank

[Garfield90]

Hey guys,
This is my first post on r2r, but Ive been reading you since long time. I live in Spain, in Madrid, and I'm starting a 1000+gallon system, whose display tank is going to be like 90x48x48", we use centimetres so this is approximate. I'm going to travel next week to the States, and my desire is to take back to spain equipment and aquarium foods.
My main concern is lighting, and I've thought (inspired by Chingchai Uekrongtham's tank) about lighting the tank with 8 Lumenbright reflectors, 8 14k bulbs (don't know which brand to install) and any ballast which could be run with 220V.
What do you think?? Pros, cons??
Thank you in advance

 

[cdness]

Have you looked into the new multi-chip LEDs? They would save you in power usage and will light up a very deep tank with the correct optics.

 

[Garfield90]

It have been considered but rejected. The MH technology have been developed for like 30 years, LEDs just a few... I want to hit the target without any doubts.
But thanks!!!!!

 

[tangs are awsome]

led lights have been proven. There is now doubts and it will keep the tank cooler, save on electricity,and provide a deeper light spectrum. I have a tall 100 gallon and I run led lights they have made my tank by far way brighter with out the added heat from mh lights. Good luck with the 1000 gallons I think your best bet and bang for your buck is led all the way.

 

[wysiwyg]

well welcome to r2r love your tank plans. depends on what you plan on keeping in your tank you doing a fowlr or reef.

 

[Garfield90]

Wysiwyg,
My plans are to run a reef, not a FOWLR. I recently received a bubble king 650 external skimmer, and this week or the next the tank is going to be mounted up.
Tangs, how deep is your tank??

 

[Steelerfan747]

I think it would be awesome having a tank you could pretty much swim in and while I would love to have the opportunity some day, I just can't see or justify running about 4000 watts for lighting. besides the obvious excessive electricity bill you will also be heating the water and causing a lot of evaporation. I would look into t-5's and while you may not be able to grow sps 4 ft down you could still grow them 24-30"down leaving more space for lps, softies and zoas towards the bottom. Just my opinion. Great luck with it and God bless

 

[Garfield90]

Steelerfan,
The aim is that a sps could grow at the top of the aquascape and even a tridacna clam could thrive in the bottom of the tank. Electrical bill and evaporation is not a problem for me, but I appreciate your suggestion!
Thanks

 

[Pappy]

That's gonna be a sick tank!!! What are you going to do for supplemental lighting? Maybe mh and LEDs if you're not sold on LEDs yet?!


Mike D "like the beastie boys" Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Garfield90]

I want to set up led blue lights for sunrise/sunset, but at this time there's no supplemental lighting in the project. It's going to be 1W/liter so more light may be added but just for esthetic purposes.

 

[Pappy]

That's what I meant sorry...mh for the growth and LEDs to make everything look pretty. Or t5s if you wanna go old school but constant bulb replacement is not my cup of tea nor could my pocketbook handle it


Mike D "like the beastie boys" Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Garfield90]

No no, that's the point, I'm glad to share my thoughts with you about lighting. Bulb replacement is too boring, and I have a t5 fixture in my actual tank, I wanted new challenges!
Any advice upon reflectors and ballasts?
Thanks!!

 

[tangs are awsome]

my tank is about thirty inches deep and I can burn coral with my white lights on if I leave them on for any longer than four hours. My lights are about 6 to eight inches off the top of my tank. I am running the equivalant to 4 watts per gallon with both the blue and white lights on. You have the possibility to have a state of the art tank without the big chillers and electric bill. You are missing out a really good light set up if you go with mh. And remember I am only running a 1 watt led. so 100 blues and 100 whites per fixture give me 200 watts per fixture and I have two on my tank I am thinking about a third because I have a L shaped acrylic tank and it is tricky to light evenly

 

[BigAl07]

Welcome to R2R!~

Your tank is going to be AMAZING! Can't wait to see it up and running. I hope you'll keep us posted as it progresses. I think a MH/LED combination would fill both your needs and wants nicely. That's one DEEEEEEP tank to be able to keep a clam on the sandbed for sure.

BigAl