I just bought a 72 bow. What should I do for lighting

[ballyhoo]

I'm gonna upgrade my 30g reef to 72g bow front and I'm currently building the stand and canopy. What do you guys think that I should do for lighting Please be specific. I don't want to spend a fortune on lights. I am good with wiring and building things, so any ideas would be great.

 

[andretti]

That all depends on what you want to keep.

If you just want shrooms and (most)soft corals you can get by with power compacts. You'll need about 250 watts for those and that will run you anywhere between $100-$250. If you want to keep clams, hard corals you'll need metal halides and those a pretty expensive (about) $300-$500.

But before the question of what type lighting you'll need can be answered, the question of what do you want has to be answered.

 

[92protruck]

Been there done that! I have 72 bow and lighting can be a problem. Most fixtures that have metal halide/PC or Metal Halide/VHO are 15 inches wide. The tank will only accept something about 10 or 11 inches wide if you want to keep it in the canopy and leave room for feeding or getting your hands in the tank. There is a coralife pc lunar light fixture that is 7 inches wide but only 260 watts. You are extremely limited in what you can keep with 260 watts over a 72 bowfront. It runs about $200.00 is nice and you can get hinged legs for it. MH, T5, VHO you pretty much have to build it yourself in the canopy or use MH pendants. MH requires a tall canopy as the lights may need to be 8 to 12 inches off the water. If you are building the canopy custom then go MH with T5 or VHO supplement. If you are limited with the height of the canopy or using the manufacturer's plastic canopy like I am, you need to go 4 x 110 watt vho's, icecap ballast, URI bulbs for about $300.00 or $200.00 with ARO ballast. You can mount them 3 inches over the water and can keep a wide assortment of coral but not everything. Hope this helps.

 

[ballyhoo]

I'm building a 10'' canopy so I think that 2MH should be ok. spaced out evenly over the tank. The question is how many watts and how many "K" would be the best for the tank.
What do I use to balance out the color and how many watts? I don't want lighting to be an issue via clams or ect..... Can MH be bought at Home Depot?

 

[ballyhoo]

can anybody with a 72 bow give me the right light combo specs?

 

[92protruck]

I'm not much help because I don't have MH's. But I did do some research when I was buying lighting for my 72 bow. 2 lights will be required on your 48" inch lenght tank. 175's will work but 250 watts for the money difference is the way to go, IMO. Color is up to you. Everyone will have a different opinion. There is no "right light combo specs." IMO, most people use 10K with some actinic supplements like vho or T5 so you can have a dusk/dawn effect (actinics come on first then 10k's). Others use 14K with supplements and some use 20K with no supplement (and no dusk/dawn effect). No you cannot buy them at HD.

 

[teresaq1]

i have acouple of sites for lights if you want
m0m24@earthlink.net

 

[ballyhoo]

Originally Posted by 92ProTruck
175's will work but 250 watts for the money difference is the way to go, IMO. Color is up to you.
You don't think that 2 250's are too much??

 

[beth]

I had a 72 gal. Are you able to build a bowed canopy?
Mine was 14" high with a flip top in the front for access. It had 4-110 watt-46.5" URIs VHOs connected to IC 660 eballast. With that height canopy I could have put and planned on putting 2 MH retros in facing back to front on either side of the canopy, still keeping the 4 VHOs above.

 

[ballyhoo]

I plan on building a bowed canopy. how did it look with 14'' height, I was planning on making a 10'', giving me about 8'' of space between water and lights

 

[beth]

10 " would work too. The higher canopy was done to control heat. At that height, I didn't have a cooling problem. However, not as much light getting to tank either.

 

[flatzboy]

Beth did you get another tank?

 

[ballyhoo]

Flatz do you have MH?

 

[beth]

Originally Posted by FLATZBOY
Beth did you get another tank?

Unfortunately, no. I had to move due to job and the work has me out of town a lot. I am basically out of the hobby now, except for helping out in the Disease Forum when I can.

 

[offshore80]

Man, sorry to hear you had to leave the hobby Beth. You had such a nice tank. I thought about your this past weekend when the Huricane went by Key West. They said the power was out. I was hoping you had made it through.

 

[beth]

Thanks for thinking of me. My family is still in Key West, but I am living in Tallahassee. Would you believe it, after all the talk of buying a gen, I did finally do it last summer, and now I have no tank. Life is strange sometimes.....

 

[dmitry]

I'm also in the process of upgrading from a 29g tank to a 72bow. On my 29 I am using a 250w 14000K MH pendant and plan to use it on the 72 as well. Plus get 2 110w (actinic; perhaps a 20000K with an actinic) VHOs to supplement wattage and color. I wonder if 490w would be enough for 72! That's almost 7w per gallon. The only issue with a pendant is that it's not as long as the tank, so the majority of the light would hit in the center (if it's centered) and then fade out to the sides. But I'm hoping the drop-off isn't that big.

 

[db]

I have a 72 gl Bow front and bought an Aqua Medic Ocean Light 36" MH/T5 combo. It fits perfect over my tank and I can keep anything I want. The fixture came with 2X250w AB 10K DE Bulbs and 2x39w T5 actinic. It cost me $599 for the whole fixture.

 

[ballyhoo]

Originally Posted by DB
I have a 72 gl Bow front and bought an Aqua Medic Ocean Light 36" MH/T5 combo. It fits perfect over my tank and I can keep anything I want. The fixture came with 2X250w AB 10K DE Bulbs and 2x39w T5 actinic. It cost me $599 for the whole fixture.
I was looking at that fixture and I like it. how is the heating? Also do you have a conopy?
I don't think 599.00 is too much more from a couple of Reto kits, I would think that its much more safe.

 

[db]

I have a fan blowing across the surface of the water and I have had no problems with heat. I'm not sure what you a refering to regarding the retro fit kits. The Aqua Medic is a single fixture that contains both the 2x250's MH and the 2x39w T5's. It's a very nice fixture that comes with a hanging kit that hangs from the ceiling. You can not have a canopy with this fixture.