light my 360gallon hex

[reefraff]

I would look at a couple 400 watt halides in Lumenarc reflectors. The lumenarcs will cover a 3x3 footprint pretty good so it should cover that odd shaped tank well. I think they are like 23 inches square. It would be a serious PITA to try to light that thing with T5's. They would have to be overdriven and it would take a lot of them to cover it, like 28

 

[tropills]

Originally Posted by Bobtail107
I think that the lights should be about 12" off the water. I AM GLAD EVERYTHING IS GOING GOOD FOR YOU.. Do you still have the puffer? I hope I am remembering right... LOL.. Do you have any pics?
Jeremy
Bobtail1075@yahoo.com
I'll get some pic's out to you soon

 

[tropills]

Originally Posted by ameno
so are you thinking about t-5's and then mh also? the t-5's would be ok close to the acrylic but still put out some heat you would want a few inches between the light and top. and from what I understand t-5's are good for up to around 30" dp.
for some reason I was thinking four opening in the top but you actually have six opening I believe, so with four mh you would be over a brace.
how would six 250watt mh work out? would that fit over each opening,
won't have quit the penetration as 400watt, but very light entense corals could be up from the bottom a bit and should be fine, I have ran 150 watt mh on 30" deep tanks and worked ok. just have to watch placement of things.
this might work out better anyway since some things require less light then others.
just throwing out some ideas here
The entire top is open, I just have to contend with the center overflow,and the 6" wide euro brace around the top edge of the tank. Yes both T5 and halide is what I'm thinking.

 

[tropills]

Originally Posted by reefraff
I would look at a couple 400 watt halides in Lumenarc reflectors. The lumenarcs will cover a 3x3 footprint pretty good so it should cover that odd shaped tank well. I think they are like 23 inches square. It would be a serious PITA to try to light that thing with T5's. They would have to be overdriven and it would take a lot of them to cover it, like 28

I was just going to have the T5's running in the morning before the halides and after the halides go off.

 

[ameno]

Ok so the frame I see coming up over the top is not going to be there, If so I would think the (4) 400watt Mh would work good suspened above the tank, I think the t-5's the way your talking would be a good add on but not sure how you could do that, t-5 and mh would have to be around the same height or you would block off the lighting of the mh when they come on, sound like bulding a canopy to set all the lighting in would be the best option.

 

[tropills]

Originally Posted by ameno
Ok so the frame I see coming up over the top is not going to be there, If so I would think the (4) 400watt Mh would work good suspened above the tank, I think the t-5's the way your talking would be a good add on but not sure how you could do that, t-5 and mh would have to be around the same height or you would block off the lighting of the mh when they come on, sound like bulding a canopy to set all the lighting in would be the best option.
correct, the metal trusses on the top will come off, so I guess the 400 watt halides are the way to go, I'll have to see exactly how many I can squeeze on the top without getting to close and melting the tank..

 

[tropills]

Thanks To all who have helped so far on this odd shaped tank lighting question.

Greg

 

[ameno]

Sounds good

want to see pics when this is up and running, gona be a nice set-up

 

[tropills]

Originally Posted by ameno
Sounds good

want to see pics when this is up and running, gona be a nice set-up
definitely have tons of pic's when I start the transfer from the 125 over to this tank, have a feeling putting the sand and rock work in will be a real chore ,and also setting all the corals once the water is in the tank..

 

[ameno]

I can only imagine, I had a 30" dp hex for my first reef, and it was a real pain trings to reach around in it, I got some long prongs to make the job easier, that would be a must on a tank that deep, unless you have some scuba gear handy

 

[reefraff]

Originally Posted by tropills
I was just going to have the T5's running in the morning before the halides and after the halides go off.
You could set T5's above the plexi on the euro bracing as long as your not depending on them for your PAR. Ringing the outter edge of the tank with a couple T5's per panel should give you a nice effect.

 

[tropills]

Originally Posted by reefraff
You could set T5's above the plexi on the euro bracing as long as your not depending on them for your PAR. Ringing the outter edge of the tank with a couple T5's per panel should give you a nice effect.
kinda what I was thinking

 

[tropills]

Originally Posted by ameno
I can only imagine, I had a 30" dp hex for my first reef, and it was a real pain trings to reach around in it, I got some long prongs to make the job easier, that would be a must on a tank that deep, unless you have some scuba gear handy

my wife's kinda small and loves to swim, so,, honey where are you...

 

[tropills]

Thanks to all who gave me Ideas but the tank deal fell through

So now I'm looking into a 96" 180 gallon. really, now that I think about it the hex would have been so hard to arrange corals and rock like several of you said, so the extra 2 feet in length and 5 inches taller might be the way to go..

I like the look of 8 foot tanks anyway, for some reason they just look huge even though they aren't really...
Thank you Greg

 

[ameno]

180 will be a nice tank, it's gona be a lot easier to deal with, and it's still a big tank, going from a hex to a long 125 seems like I have 10x the room and easier viewing, good luck with the new tank

 

[jrthomas40]

you can do a series of small pendants in a diamond shape to avoid being right over the overflow but that is the only way i see to light it...the plastic is more than like abs plastic so it will take some heat and being about 10-12 inches from it with cooling fans i think you will be straight