lighting an odd sized 175

BluegrassReef · Apr 6, 2009

how would you light a odd sized 175.....The measurements are:

48 x 39 x 21 which equals out to 170.18 gallons....The tank is glass and is in pieces I can get all the glass for $75 bucks....I at least wanna look at it...I was planning on a 50 breeder from glasscages with starfire front but this maybe worth putting back together if the glass is in good shape.

It would be a softie tank if the glass is worth buying...I was thinking 250w halides but how many? Was thinking 3 in a triangle layout.

cloakerpoked · Apr 6, 2009

Would have a lot to do with the reflectors, more than anything. If you were using reflectors that could throw light in a wider patern, then yeah. If you're doing a softie tank, why bother with MH lighting at all? I'd just use VHO or t-5 for that.

BluegrassReef · Apr 7, 2009

cloakerpoked said:
Would have a lot to do with the reflectors, more than anything. If you were using reflectors that could throw light in a wider patern, then yeah. If you're doing a softie tank, why bother with MH lighting at all? I'd just use VHO or t-5 for that.

gotta love that shimmer from the halides....lol

cloakerpoked · Apr 7, 2009

well then definitely more about the reflectors than the positioning. I love MH and will stick with them also...but for what you need, just seems like other bulbs would be a heck of a lot more efficient.

AlexStinson · Apr 7, 2009

I would do 2 of the large luminarc reflectors side by side with 250w halides, if that is lacking I would then just run a t5 retro in the front and back. But I have one large luminarc for each of my softy tanks and the tanks are 4'x4' but they are about 3foot off the surface running 400w bulbs

shred5 · Apr 7, 2009

BluegrassReef said:
how would you light a odd sized 175.....The measurements are:

48 x 39 x 21 which equals out to 170.18 gallons....The tank is glass and is in pieces I can get all the glass for $75 bucks....I at least wanna look at it...I was planning on a 50 breeder from glasscages with starfire front but this maybe worth putting back together if the glass is in good shape.

It would be a softie tank if the glass is worth buying...I was thinking 250w halides but how many? Was thinking 3 in a triangle layout.

(4) 250'S Would be good.... T5's are awsum but holy cow that would be allot of them. The tanks is not really tall so 250 would be fine. but it is wide fron to back.

You could go with different watages in different places if you want to have different corals that prefer different light levels and maybe get away with 3 too maybe a 400, 150, 250.... Even make the layout of you rock work with open areas where there is less light.

That is a really cool size tank. I have a freind who has a tank almost with thise dimentions and it looks awsum.. It looks much bigger than it really is..

Dave

BluegrassReef · Apr 7, 2009

shred5 said:
(4) 250'S Would be good.... T5's are awsum but holy cow that would be allot of them. The tanks is not really tall so 250 would be fine. but it is wide fron to back.

You could go with different watages in different places if you want to have different corals that prefer different light levels and maybe get away with 3 too maybe a 400, 150, 250.... Even make the layout of you rock work with open areas where there is less light.

That is a really cool size tank. I have a freind who has a tank almost with thise dimentions and it looks awsum.. It looks much bigger than it really is..

Dave

was thinking that 3 halides in the large lumenbrites/arcs would do the trick since it would only be a softie tank...maybe a few choice sps....do you have any pics of your friends tank...I would love to see it and get some ideas if possible.

Gimili the Great · Apr 7, 2009

BluegrassReef said:
gotta love that shimmer from the halides....lol

then why not run T5 and LED? the led lights will give you that shimmer (and some would say better then MH shimmer)

shred5 · Apr 7, 2009

BluegrassReef said:
was thinking that 3 halides in the large lumenbrites/arcs would do the trick since it would only be a softie tank...maybe a few choice sps....do you have any pics of your friends tank...I would love to see it and get some ideas if possible.

Actually I do not but I can ask him if he does. He recently moved it so I am not sure how his tank handled that. Kind of reminds Me I have not talked to him in a while..

Dave

BluegrassReef · Apr 7, 2009

Gimili the Great said:
then why not run T5 and LED? the led lights will give you that shimmer (and some would say better then MH shimmer)

that would be alot of t5's to cover a 39" wide tank...around 12 or so I would think.

cloakerpoked · Apr 7, 2009

You don't need nearly as many because you wouldn't need the PAR readings. If you spaced them out, I'll bet 8 would be fine for what you're doing, and that's a very reasonable number (a lot more than 4 MH bulbs anyway) from a cost and energy standpoint. If you were able to put the MH bulbs up high enough (i.e. 2 or 3 feet above the tank) you could probably do 2x400w instead of 4x250w and get good growth if you're dead set on MH lighting. I just hate to see you have a ton of MH bulbs for a softie reef when it is not necessary and would kill a ton of energy that you wouldn't need to use.

shred5 · Apr 7, 2009

Yea I missed that it was going to be a softy tank.... (3) or (4) 150's D/E or yea buy some diy t-5 with good individual reflectors and space them a little bit...

Dave

cloakerpoked · Apr 7, 2009

You gotta think of the expense of the bulbs too though in factoring in this stuff. Would keeping 4 150's be cheaper in the long run than 2 400's or 3 250's when you factor in that a bulb will set you back $75-100 each. Especially if you're changing them every 10 months. That's why I think t-5 would still be the way to go in this application.

shred5 · Apr 7, 2009

cloakerpoked said:
You gotta think of the expense of the bulbs too though in factoring in this stuff. Would keeping 4 150's be cheaper in the long run than 2 400's or 3 250's when you factor in that a bulb will set you back $75-100 each. Especially if you're changing them every 10 months. That's why I think t-5 would still be the way to go in this application.

400 would not work because it would be way over kill and probably nuke some of the corals he is looking at. I missed that it was a softy tank when I mentioned a 400.

Nothing wrong with t-5's I run them on all my tanks now instead of halides... Just sometimes with weird sized tanks sometimes halides have a benefit... In his case t-5 would be fine spread out… Save energy too. I find t-5 are actually to much light for shallower tanks unless you are doing sps’s. But yea spread out would be nice for a tank like that...

Dave

cloakerpoked · Apr 7, 2009

The 400's would only be ok with me if they were way up above the tank (2 feet or more, preferably closer to 3. You'd need that distance to get the spread you'd want anyway. He said he likes the shimmer, and I love it, and will never go away from halide because of it, but it just doesn't make sense to use that much energy to light a softie tank IMO. I plan eventually to do a 4'x4'2' SPS dominated tank with 4x250w MH lighting, but in that kind of tank, with that kind of stock, it's not that ludicrous. For a softie reef, it's big time overkill (again IMO)

BluegrassReef · Apr 7, 2009

I don't even have this yet and have started a great debate....LOL...just kidding it is great to see everybody's opinion...I dtill have not heard back from the guy to even get to look at the glass.

shred5 · Apr 8, 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVgH6B6foLs

Here is a video of my freinds tank.. It does not do his tank justice at all.. One of the most awsum tanks I have seen.

Dave

BluegrassReef · Apr 8, 2009

shred5 said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVgH6B6foLs

Here is a video of my freinds tank.. It does not do his tank justice at all.. One of the most awsum tanks I have seen.

Dave

I will have to agree that is a sweet tank...how is/was he lighting it?

shred5 · Apr 8, 2009

BluegrassReef said:
I will have to agree that is a sweet tank...how is/was he lighting it?

Here is his reply:

The tank is about 42" by 42" I was using four 250 watt halides on lumenarc minis before the move but to save a bit on electric I moved to just one 400 watt on a new lumen bright reflector and with a 20k radium the tank is more than adequately lit using just the 400 watter. And the tank is way more accesible becausethe hood is way smaller and mounted alot higher up than before.

So his dimensions are close. A little longer one way and a little shorter the other... You are going to love that tank... Take your time and set it up right... I want to do a tank about the same dimensions on day too once I move..

Honestly his tank is full blown sps and had 4 250â€™s. I have not seen his tank since he moved. But if you are going softies 4 150â€™s would be ok. Also the t-5 option is not bad eitherâ€¦ I am not sure 1 400 is enough because it has to be raised really high and you are going to loose allot of that light spilling out the top of that tank.

Dave