1250 gallon aquarium

[firereef]

I have started my new 1250 gallon aquarium project and need some advice:
Tank: 126x72x32 , want to keep mostly SPS, Acros. Tank will be in sealed fish room which is 13' x 22' big.
Lighting: I would like to use mostly T5's with some halides to give the glimmering affect.
How many halides should I use?
How many T5's do i need?
If I dont use any T5's how many halides should I use?
Are 250HQI enough?
Pumps: If I have 4 closed loops can I shut 2 down when the lights are not on to save energy or does this stagnate the water in those lines?
Ventilation:
What size fan would you use to vent heat humididty outside?
What size intake vent?
thanks!

 

[dacia]

Sorry to reply without an answer to your questions...but I have one of my own. Where on earth do you get a 1250 gallon tank? And how much money would I have to save to get one?
And I thought my 180 project was big. :jumping:
Lots of luck and please post pictures!!!

 

[firereef]

hey thanks for the reply.
I am building the tank myself...its a very long expensive project which I know in the end will be worth it.

 

[rubberduck]

yes me too im interested!

 

[firereef]

I will post pictures soon. i am jst trying to get far enough ahead in the process so i can update it frequently

 

[msd2]

Sounds like an impressive project. If I read correctly the depth is 32 inches. At that depth and to be having SPS I would think your gonna need pretty good halide lighting, just to penetrate that deep. As a very crude measure most SPS tanks go for 7-15 watts per gallon. Your talking a considerable amount of power, either way I would in ur case suggest electronic ballasts, they cost more but are about 10% more effecient than magnetic. Considering the amount of power u will be using its worth the expense. Id say step up to the 400's, its gonna take a lot of light.
Someone else on here, steve I think also has a very large tank, probably worth looking at his setup.

 

[big911dog]

when i was researching my HQI's, i learned that anything over 24" needed to bump up to 400 watts for the depth. from what i understood, the 250's (which i have) are only good to 24" in terms of the corals.
Please post pics as you go. sounds like great fun!

 

[shoreliner11]

Are we talking DE hqi bulbs? Cause if so, 250 hqi de's I would think would penetrate deep enough. They put out the same usable light as a 400w mogul bulb. I have actually compared my 250w de hqi to a 400w 20k radium and my bulb seem to be brighter. Although you can always get 400w de bulbs which would be light and then some.

 

[big911dog]

mine are the DE HQI's. i was just going by the advice from Bang, Kip, and the rest of the SWF gods. i'm not a lighting expert tho. I know the HQI's put out more than the moguls, but those depth figures were based on my HQI scenarios.

 

[firereef]

Hi yes im thinking 250 HQI.

 

[msd2]

Originally posted by Shoreliner11
Are we talking DE hqi bulbs? Cause if so, 250 hqi de's I would think would penetrate deep enough. They put out the same usable light as a 400w mogul bulb. I have actually compared my 250w de hqi to a 400w 20k radium and my bulb seem to be brighter. Although you can always get 400w de bulbs which would be light and then some.
You know I remember hearing this often but before i installed my lights I found someone that had actually measured the de's compared to the mogul's and while they did put out more light it was nowhere close to the next step up in lighting, aka a 250 wasnt the same as a 400. I will try to find that link.

 

[t n h]

pics when you get them this is gonna be a awsome project good luck

 

[robchuck]

I would go with either 250 or 400W mogul lighting in Diamond Lumenarc 3 reflectors. The pendants that house DE MH bulbs are great and put out a lot of light, but the spread they produce isn't very large. The Diamond Lumenarc 3 reflectors are huge and help to spread light over an area much larger than the DE pendants could (and the advantages of DE bulbs are wiped out when not used with a proper DE pendant/reflector), or even mogul bulbs in parabolic reflectors.
Using mogul based bulbs in the Diamond Lumenarc reflector, you would probably only need 9-12 MH setups to light the whole tank, as opposed to 15-18 DE setups.