Switching lighting- coral limitations?

[cubalz]

I have a 75 gallon salt tank with about 80 lbs LR and a false clown. I am getting ready to switch from 220 w of PC lights to an Icecap 660 ballast and running 2 110w URI aqua suns and 2 110w super R actinics for a total of 440w of VHO light.

A buddy of mine is looking to hook me up with a bunch of frags and I was wondering with this light setup what I could keep. SPS, LPS etc...

I have been very successful with mushroom corals in there already and would like to have more of a reef setup, I am thinking about a brain coral, bubble coral, button coral, yellow fiji leather coral and frogspawn to start with. Along with these what do you recommend with this lighting setup?

Thanks!
John

[Poseidon]

I think those all sound like great choices! However for SPS, I would get another 2 VHO bulbs for them. MAybe 2 "50/50" bulbs. 4 VHO's is a good start, and you should be able to keep some lower light Acro's like Pocilliapora, but I wouldn't try any Milli's or Caps...

[cubalz]

I think those all sound like great choices! However for SPS, I would get another 2 VHO bulbs for them. MAybe 2 "50/50" bulbs. 4 VHO's is a good start, and you should be able to keep some lower light Acro's like Pocilliapora, but I wouldn't try any Milli's or Caps...

Poseidon, Thnaks for the help! My buddy said that I could get another 660 ballast from him if I needed it, so I could realistically run 880w total but I cannot afford to buy the extra bulbs right now so I figured I would start out with 4 vho's for now. Would 880w of VHO be overkill? Could I keep a clam with either 440 of 880w of VHO's?

[Poseidon]

8 bulbs would Awesome! Then you could keep pretty much whatever you want I would think. But depending on how much you are paying for your ballasts and bulbs, you might be very close to the cost of 2x250W metal halide system... Then you could really keep whatever, without any doubt! Plus you would get the glimmer lines in the tank... Those are COOL!

As I think of it could you FIT 8 bulbs over your 75? And what would you use for a reflector? For sure you will have to remove the hood/Canopy when you do any work in the tank, that would get pretty old fast at my house...

Honestly I think 6 VHO would be more then enough though, especially if they are 4 white and 2 blue... I'll bet that combination would be very appealing to your eye too!

Just adding things up in my head, 2 660's should cost around $320, and the bulbs are probably 30 a piece right? so 6 bulbs and 2 ballasts= $500, and you still need reflector. I bought 2 icecap HQI ballasts, reflectors, and 2 10K AB bulbs for $470 about 2 years ago. This way the bulbs don't take up the ENTIRE width of your tank, and the intensity is better.