[TampaSal]

We are putting together a 150 gal reef tank. We will have a 15" canopy and have gotten so much conflicting advise about lighting that now we are totally up in the air about what we will need. We want to do some soft corals eventually and want to set the tank up to be able to add them as we gain experience without having to replace expensive lighting. We've been told we should use metal halides but because we have an enclosed canopy, we would have to add extra fans and perhaps even a water cooler (which I understand to be difficult to regulate, not to mention expensive). We are not electricians or carpenters so would rather purchase something "pre-built" or at least get detailed plans for a lighting unit. Can anyone give us some advise and/or plans for our tank? Thanks in advance.

[Ninong]

Hi TampaSal, welcome to Reefland!

What size is your 150-gal tank? Is it 6-ft long or 4-ft long? Standard glass 150-gal tanks are 6-ft long but standard acrylic 150-gal tanks are 4-ft long.

Please post your tank's dimensions: L x W x H. It's important to know exactly what your tank's dimensions are before trying to advise you on lighting.

Thanks,

[TampaSal]

It's a 6 foot long standard glass tank. Thanks

[Poseidon]

Hi Tampasal, welcome to Reefland!

There are several recent threads that discuss lighting, however I will give a breakdown.

Metal Halide: The "Cadillac" so to speak. With this lighting you can keep pretty much everything the hobby has to offer. It does have draw backs, HEAT is the main one. I have the benefit of having my tank built into a wall, so I do not need a canopy to hide the lighting fixtures. The bulbs last about a year before they lose some intensity. A single bulb will light an area of approximatley 2x2' sq. So a 6 ft tank would require 3 bulbs to be evenly lit. I have a 6 ft tank with 2 bulbs, I use the ends of the tank to keep lower light type corals, such as Xenia and Ricordia Yuma.

PC: Power Compact, I used these lights successfully for several years. They work well for softies and most LPS corals. With this light you would be hard pressed to keep SPS, Clams, or Anemones.

VHO: This is a good choice if you are looking to do a Fish Only with Live Rock, FOWLR tank. You could get 2 bulbs, 1 blue and 1 white, and have a very eye pleasing tank. This 2 bulb set would not be adequate for more then a few types of mushrooms and other low light softies. You could always add more bulbs though and have 6 above the tank, this would give you more options for corals. These lights also seem to provide the best actinic, meaning the blues and greens REALLY POP!

T5: These are the "newest" flourescents, they are smaller in diameter and put out more lumens. I have no experience with these but I suspect they are similar to PC.

You may come across someone that uses the OLD "watts per Gallon" formula, just smile and nod as that person has no clue what they are talking about! Your tank is a PERFECT example as to why I say that. You may have a tank that is 48x24x30 OR it may be 72x18x24 both are 150 gallons, but each would require different lighting. The amount of light reaching the bottom of a 30" deep tank surely is LESS then that reaching the bottom of a 22" tank, but under watts per gallon rules they require the same. See my point?

Personally I would suggest getting the Metal Halide, as if you get the "bug" you will end up there anyway. There are several manufacturers that build a "complete" light fixture that can either stand above the tank on legs or be hung from the ceiling. Yes you will have to add fans for cooling, but depending on what you keep the AC at you may not need a chiller!

[Poseidon]

See Ninong wanted to know 4 ft or 6 ft too.... I was typing my response before you posted you had a 6ft tank!

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by TampaSal

It's a 6 foot long standard glass tank. Thanks

OK. According to All-Glass, their standard 150-gal aquarium measures 72"L x 18"W x 28"H. I will assume that those are the dimensions of your tank.

There are several options available to you. It all depends on what you want to keep in your tank.

If you plan on keeping SPS corals and Tridacna spp. clams, I think you should consider including metal halide lamps. As you have already noted, this option might require you to add a chiller to your system, especially where you live. But you don't have to go with metal halides if you don't want to. You could use just VHO fluorescent lamps (two URI 6' long super actinics and two URI 6' long actinic whites), or you could use the new T5's or compact fluorescents.

You can keep a very nice mixed reef tank without metal halides but most people end up with metal halides eventurally, even those who thought they didn't want them.

[TampaSal]

Thanks for your replies. We ended up making a retro light set up ourselves. Considering the fact that we are not handy people at all, I am especially proud that we accomplished this (without electricuting ourselves or frying the ballasts, I might add). We are using vho at the moment but will eventually switch to metal halides. Because there were no pre-fab units that would fit all the lighting we needed in our canopy, we used one pre-fab set up which includes moon lights and we made two two-bulb retros to supplement this. We still need to do some adjustments to make it easier to swing the retros out of the way when we need to access the tank, but we are getting there. Once we get the gurgling noise from one of the overflows fixed, we will add the live sand and rock then mount the canopy. I'll post a picture when we get it all set up. Building a reef tank is a lesson in patience....something I have a very short supply of!!