lighting for 90 reef tank

[thetrex]

Good Morning
I am starting to look for the lighting for my 90 gallon reef tank and was wondering how much light is to much and how much is not enough. The lighting system I am looking at is the Orbit HP that containes 2-96w dual day light & 2 96w dual actinic lamps and 4 lunar lamps. This would give me 384w and 4.3w per gallon.
:help: :help: :help:

 

[reefnut]

With that lighting you could keep a verity of corals. (soft & LPS) I would go with any light demanding sps, clams or anemones though. It is very difficult if not impossible to get "to much" lighting. The most common limiting factor is heat.

 

[compinnov]

hello,
Those are good lights, I had the orbit 4x130 pc compacts. I ended up going to the outer orbit with 2- 150 MH's and 4 130 pc compacts. You will need atleast 5-8 watts a gallon for the LPS's (Hammers, torch coral, frogspawn, etc. It is enough lighting for mushrooms, pollops, etc. I know price is a factor with this hobby, but if you can swing it, Go with the MH's with compacts, over just PC's, you will be able to keep just about anything you want. With only 3-5 you limit yourself on what you can keep. (Clams, anenomes, etc). Have fun :happy:

 

[ohiorn67]

Hi, I have a 90 gallon tank and just upgraded from the coralife 4x65 which was ok to the orbit 4x96 you describe. I LOVE them. They are bright, crisp and gorgeous color on the actinic...They stay cool and the fans I found were much larger on the orbit. I have mushrooms, polyps, candy cane coral, yellow leather, cabbage leather, sun coral...they are all doing fantastic. We are fairly new to saltwater so we knew that we would not be doing the harder corals because more work...wanted to start with this stuff...we are very satisfied..here are some pictures of my tank...I have never had bad algae or anything with these lights and we have them on timers....the full lights are on for 9 hours while actinics are on for 12 total and then moonlights are great!!

 

[jobob]

so i was useing 4x55 and 2x65pc on my 55gal. i upgraded to mh last month. and wow what a difference!!! not only can i keep just about anything, the softies i had are doin so much better. i have never seen them so big and colorful. they are def. worth the money. but if cant afford then get the 4x96 pc. but with a 90gal they're deep so u would need alot of light. i got my DIY mh,pc for about $350 w/ wooden canopy. so if u can built a DIY canopy IMO thats the best way to go. its not hard all the wiring is done for u in the retro kits. all u have to do is make the canopy. which took me about 4hrs with staining it.

 

[chinnyr]

I have 2x 250 coralvue 14k halides and 2x 110w vhos on my tank.I have sps,lps,and softies.This gives me plenty of light and lighting to keep just about anything if I decide to change inhabitants later.

 

[thetrex]

I think im going to go with the orbit 4x96w lights.