MH question for 75G.

[eses]

Now that the tank is cycling and I have time to kill, I am planning the light setup for my new 75G. I want to at some point in this tank's life have clams, but also have the soft corals that are in my 29G when the tank matures enough to support them. So my ultimate goal is basically clams and high/medium light mushrooms.

Looking around, the most cost effective for the wattage seems to be running dual 400W Iwasaki, and two 48" 40W flourecent actinic lights.

That would give me a total of 880watts, or 11.7w/gal.

1. Is this going to be overkill? Will I still be able to keep mushrooms on the sandbed?

2. Am I going to require a chiller at this point? The lights will be mounted in a fan-vented oak hood. I have no heating problems as is, but I am only running 128w of PC light.

Would it be safer for me to run dual 250w? I am looking around the web, and I've yet to see anyone with a tank this small running more than dual 175w lamps.

Any experienced thoughts would be great,

Wes

[PerryinCA]

Hi Wes,

I'll anwer your questions and then comment~

1) No I don't see that as overkill, in fact I highly recommend 400w lamps for everything, provided the tank can be kept at the correct temps. Mushrroms can and will flourish IF they are properly acclimated. Also, overhangs and crevices can make a tank look more realistic, and give the shaded area's for those species which don't need or like as much light as others. The temp issue brings me to your next question...

2)It is very possible. Having a very well ventialted hood (adding one or more fans to your current setup) will help. Also, the ambient house temperature/humidity has a large effect on the ability for air to keep the tank cool enough. Sometimes a chiller is needed, sometimes good ventilation is enough. I'll tell you that with about 1100 watts over a 90 gal, it was tough to keep the temps much below 85 during mid day in the middle of the summer (house temps around 80) here in CA. I had 2 fans in the hood (push/pull) and had a larger 6" temp activated fan over the sump to evap more air and cool the tank better. Seemed to work well, but with more light, or higher humidity, a chiller likely would have been needed.

As for the Iwasaki, most people don't totally enjoy the color of the 400w with minimal actinic. You very well may, and I am sure that any coral will. Using the EYE for a while until you are ready to change would be a good idea if lighting start-up costs are a factor. If you think there may be a temp problem, 250w HQI DE, and Iwasaki are both good choices for that size tank.

-Perry

[Rin]

I've got a 75 with dual 250W Iwasakis and Quad 110W actinics. I keep my house around 78 (except for the 1 month of winter where it's kept at 70).

1) The Iwasakis are fairly greenish. Not as bad as they used to be, but they still require a lot of supplimentation.

2) Temperature is a royal pain in the rear. Temperatures generally approach 85°F on warm days. If I ever loose my house AC, I hope to God I'm home so I can turn off the lights. I've got 2 4" fans in the hood. I'll need to add more ventilation to help with the cooling. Either that or fork out the dough for a chiller. I evaporate almost 2 gallons of water per day. I almost went 400W, I'm glad I didn't.

Except for the temperature issues, I am very please with my setup. My mushrooms are doing great. I did accidentally burn off all of my star polyps, hopefully they'll come back.

FWIW, Good luck.

[fletch]

I have a Dual 175w PFO ballast that I am thinking of upgrading. For something like $170 I'll sell the Ballast and 2 10K bulbs (no mogel or reflector)

I liked these at first but now a few months after running them I am needing more light, I have SPS and they love light !!

I have a clam under these 175's right now... if you like maxximas the dont go lower than 400's there are other types of clams that like the lower wattege like my squosmas clam or you could get a deresas also

Any way if you wat e-mail me @
fletch33@att.net

[Ironreef]

IMO in a 75g if it isn't a dedicated sps clam tank 250w will be fine. You can search the bboards and see alot with 175w and 250w with clams and sps. 400w will give you faster growth. Mountaindew man has a 75g with sps clams ect he lives north seattle look at his set up. 400w may give you faster growth and more purple(sps) but for softies it's not needed. clams maxima do fine under 250 on the sandbed also. IMo 400w if its not a sps dedicated tank why pay more $$ for power= cooling also. softies will out grow your tank to fast anyway and probally won't make much off the frags locally IME

[eses]

Thanks for your input, I think 250's sound like the saner route. I don't plan on having any SPS for awhile, and if I do I can always upgrade if need be. For now I want to avoid a chiller at all costs, I have no place to put one if I needed one.

Ironreef; I haven't found anyone in my area to sell frags too. None of the stores I've spoke with will give credit, they will all most happily take them off my hands though. Kind of lame, but I don't blame them.