New setup leading to a few questions

[c.cook6459]

Greetings all.

First let me state that I currently have a 56g column reef that's been running for nearly 2 years now. I have been keeping mostly mushrooms, sponges, star polys, leathers, ect in the tank and am finally considering an upgrade.

We currently have a 75g and a 110g tall that I can choose from. My main question about this is the depth of the 110g tank. Due to how deep the 56g column tank was, I have ended up running 6 high output T5's on the tank to get decent growth from my corals near the sandbed and even then I mainly keep mushrooms and sponges there.

The 56g tank I'm running now is approx 24 inches from sandbed to light, and looking at the other tanks they'll be 29 inches to sandbed for the 110g and 20 inches to sandbed for the 75g. I would LOVE to run the 110g but with nearly 30 inches of water what kind of lighting setup should I be looking at? Would I need to suck it up and finally get some MH with some T5s or would LEDs proving enough penetration to reach that depth? Would getting the right penetration in the 110g be to much of a headache and just suck up the 35g loss and go with the 75g?

Any help or opinions on this matter are greatly appreciated.

 

[Zero Nitrates]

LED's with T5s would work well.

 

[Palting]

My 150 is 27" deep, using 150watt DE MH withT5 HO's. I can grow LPS on the bottom, and SPS from the lower rocks up to the top obviously. Softies are fine at the bottom to middle depth. Tank has been running for over4 years.

I assume your 110 is 48X18X30. If you are looking for a mixed reef, you can use a fixture with two 150 watt DE MH bulbs plus four 54W T5's. If you want to go SPS only, you may prefer one with two 250W DE MH bulbs instead, still with the T5's.

 

[c.cook6459]

Palting,

So you think something along the lines of this would work fine?

Odyssea 48 inch Metal Halide Fixture 2x250W HQI + 4x54W T5 +6xDual LED

 

[Mr. Microscope]

If you're into DIY at all, you can build some pretty killer LED's and throw some extremely tight optics on them. I've seen tanks where people put LED's in the ceiling and still had ample power for SPS.

 

[Palting]

The specs are right, the problem IMO is the brand. There have been some negative feedback on the brand, along the lines of "you get what you pay for" comments.

Known brand options, however, like Hamilton Hamilton Metal Halide + T5 HO Belize Sun Light Fixture , or Aqua Medic Aqua Medic Metal Halide + T5 Ocean Light Fixture, , are significantly more expensive. You may want to risk the cheaper one you've mentione simply because of the price, but IMO it's still a $240 gamble. Your choice.

I have no experience with LED's, but people swear by them.

GL!

EDIT:I was trying to do some shopping for you. Unlike 5 years ago when I did my shopping, now there are not that many MH fixtures available now. Here's a handy-dandy chart you can refer to for options: http://www.marineandreef.com/Articles.asp?ID=121

 

[c.cook6459]

Thanks for input all. And thank you for showing me that chart, it's highly informative and I had no idea something like that even existed. Lol

I'll have some major decisions to make, the DIY LEDs intrigue me so I'll definitely have to look into those. Plus I'll have to look up more about the odyssea brand. That's a big difference jumping from $240 into the $600-1,000 range. Lol

Ohh....decisions decisions.....

 

[Zachary.gingell]

If you can afford it go with ecotech marine Radion xr30w pro Gen 3 they get really good penetration I have the regular xr30w Gen 3s not the pros on my 75 and I have them turned Down to 65 percent and grow sps from the sand bed but y you will probably need 2 lights over a 110 abs they are like 7-800 a piece but if you have the money it's so worth it