Lighting a 6ft, 30in deep tank ?

[kraftyforu]

This question is for a 225g 72"X30"X24" tank. What would be the best way to light this enough to where I could keep SPS corals from at least middle to slightly lower than middle of the tank? I have acquired an OLD Current USA 6' 3X 250w MH and 4 X 96w PC fixture. I was thinking that i could cannibalize this fixture for parts. Maybe swap out the PC components for 4X80w T5? Would this be enough for what I'm wanting or will I need to add to this?

 

[Sabellafella]

This question is for a 225g 72"X30"X24" tank. What would be the best way to light this enough to where I could keep SPS corals from at least middle to slightly lower than middle of the tank? I have acquired an OLD Current USA 6' 3X 250w MH and 4 X 96w PC fixture. I was thinking that i could cannibalize this fixture for parts. Maybe swap out the PC components for 4X80w T5? Would this be enough for what I'm wanting or will I need to add to this?

Took the words right outa my mouth, if you swap for atleast 2 t5s your golden, if you like leds you could try reefbrites

 

[Sabellafella]

As long as the acros are 25 inches from THE fixture will be enuff

 

[maroun.c]

I'm using 3 250w MH in Lumenbright reflectors supplemented by 4 lines of T5s and couple of LEDs between the halides just for actinic and moonlights... Tank is 88x34x30 and I have SPS (monties scrolling and encrusting ) growing fine on the sand bed.
Believe you're fine with the halides and the added T5s will allow you to tweak your colors to your liking.

 

[cb684]

What PAR are you trying to get? I have a 96x24 that is 31" deep and I use two 8x54W T5s ati fixtures... I get about 350 PAR around the middle of the tank with the fixtures about 6-8" above the surface.

 

[Dtackett]

whats your budget? you could do your 4 bulb t5 setup with 2 30 inch @SB Reef Lights as support. with that setup you would be able to grow about anything, have minimal shadowing, have all the perks of t5 and led and still have the control you have with the orbit but with a much better light.

 

[kraftyforu]

The budget depends on how things look come tax time. I might add some led's to supplement and add that 'pop' to it. So basically what I'm looking at is 3X 250w MH and 4X 80w T5 HO with some led supplement. So that would give me 1,070 watts total plus whatever led's I add. With this would I be able to put whatever I want (mainly what the boss lady thinks is pretty) in this tank?

 

[MatsReef]

On my old 72x24x24 I was running almost the exact same lighting setup. Except for a 400w halide in the middle with 250w's on the ends. Supplemented by 4 55w PC's. Could pretty much grow anything anywhere. I liked your plan of swapping out for T5's. Run that for a while and see how it goes. LED's are only getting cheaper so I wouldn't be in a rush. Just make sure to keep good bulbs installed.

 

[twilliard]

Two Orphek v3 fixtures

 

[kraftyforu]

Well the light fixture I thought I had acquired is no more. So now I get to shop around and see what I could come up with to light this tank. The boss(wife) likes the notion of running LED's for the cost effectiveness and heat issues. Supprisingly she has not shot down the possibility of getting the 5' Vertex Illumina even though I've only been able to find one on Ebay for $2,899.99.