36x24x20 Lighting?

[Reefland]

Just wondering what everyone's thoughts are for lights over a tank with these dimensions. I am planning for a new tank soon and now that I have settled on these dimensions, I want to move towards the lighting. I'm going to go for SPS and clams obviously ( ;) ) but I am a little undecided on lighting. Iwasaki's are choice it seems but isn't there a decent AquaSpacelight fixture that would work over these dimensions?

Perry, got any thoughts?

All suggestions welcome,
Scott Z.

[PerryinCA]

Scott,

I think you might have some trouble covering all the area of the tank with one of the free hanging fixtures, simply because you can't find one that has two lamps, over a 36" area.

I would probably run 2 250s 10k (DE or Mogul), or 'Saki and some actinic supp, or perhaps 2 250s and a 150w Radium.

A neat way to light it would be to mount the 2 250s as normally mounted (perp to the front of the tank, off centered toward the rear by a little) and then mount a 150w radium, or perhaps a 150w Ushio Blue at the front of the tank horizontally, angled toward the rear. Did that make sense?

Either way, nice size tank. Custom make?

-Perry

[Reefland]

Yeah the tank will have to be custom made. I may just go with acrylic to save on shipping costs.

So your suggesting going with 3 MH, 2-250's towrds the back and 1-150 in the front? Start up the 150 a bit before the 2-250's? I think I am going to go with 10k's for sure and would like to use the DE's for their color. I guess the problem then becomes retrofitting the DE's in a canopy right? Is there an easy way to shield them?

Scott Z.

[Reefland]

What do you think about going with the 2-250's and 1 or 2 24" VHO in the front section of the tank?

Scott Z.

[PerryinCA]

That would work too, I just like the extra PAR from the MH. Looking at some spectral ditribution charts, the VHO's really don't do much in comparison. However, for simple aethetics, that will work well.

As far as the retro-fit.... just be sure to use 3/16" glass, or acrylic. I tried the retro-fit DE and was not successful a while back, and was not too successful. I have seen others who did pretty good with it though.

If you make a canopy, you can get a sheet of glass that totally covers the bottom for shielding. Just be careful to not have too much air blowing directly on the lamps if thats the case...you'll get better output from a hotter lamp (more efficient).

-Perry