Help with lighting

[stacyt]

I'm almost done setting up my 240 reef. Now I need to start setting up my lighting. I was thinking that I would use 4 X 96 watt pc's with 10,000K bulbs. I have 2 X 175 watt MH's that I'm going to use 12,000K bulbs. I'm debating on getting either 2 X 250 watt MH's, or 2 X 400 watt MH's and running 20,000K bulbs. I was going to put the 175's towards the ends of the tank, and the other MH's towards the center of the tank. What are some good brand ballasts and bulbs for MH's? I've heard that sometimes you have to buy certain brand bulbs to go with certain brand ballast. Is this correct? How does this setup sound?

 

[blondenaso1]

First off what kind of reef tank do you want this to be? Are you planning on keeping a lot of SPS corals? If so I would defintaley recommend the 250s and probably if it was me, I would go with the 400s. What type of ballasts are the ones you have for the 175s? This is what I would do. I would use 4 250w 10000K Ushios run off Icecap ballasts and I would use the PCs to run true actinic PC bulbs. You said you were planning on using 12000K bulbs. If you are talking about the Sunburts then I would recomend against. I don't like the Sunburst I have at all. By the way, what are the dimensions of the tank? Sorry my reply is a little jumbled. I was just typing as I thought.

 

[stacyt]

The tank dimensions are 8'X24"X24". The 175's ballast are custom sea I beleive. The majority of the corals I have are softies, but I would like to add some sps, and clams. I was thinking about the sunburst, but if they aren't that great I'll go with something else. What about the 20,000K bulbs? Are they any good?

 

[stacyt]

Instead of buying the 250, or 400 watt MH's I', going to use 4 175 watts. Also I'm going to add 2 more 65 watt pc's. This should give me about 5 watts per gallon. Any suggestions on the bulbs for the MH's?

 

[saltyshark]

Originally posted by StacyT
Instead of buying the 250, or 400 watt MH's I', going to use 4 175 watts. Also I'm going to add 2 more 65 watt pc's. This should give me about 5 watts per gallon. Any suggestions on the bulbs for the MH's?
I am no expert but from the information I have gathered I wouldn't recommend that setup if you want to keep sps and clams.
IMO the watts per gallon rule is not what you should base your decision on. You have a deep tank at 24". It is very important to understand that light loses intensity as it travels further from the light source, and the wpg rule does not factor this in.
In other words...although you would keep the inhabitants near the very top of the tank happy, anything placed lower than that would have to have low-med light requirements (definitely not clams).
I would recommend 4 400watt mh or at the very least 4 250watt mh taking into consideration that each mh will cover a 2X2' area. Again I am no expert but this is what I would go with if I were you.
Side note: If you get the 20k's (radiums look nice) no actinic supplementation is needed.
HTH
SaltyShark