lighting question

[kwilliejr]

hello to all at S.W.F.com. You all are so much help, thank you so much! 28 inch tank [2 inches live sand] 1 inch from top of glass [ 25 inches of water ] ,I want to grow, candy coral, mushrooms, acropora [small polyp stony], cladiella {leather], frogspawn, and gargonias. I would prefer not to have to use a chiller. tank is 135 reef with fish, 65 gal fuge, 25 gal sump. question is, 3 metal halides with t-5 for actonic supplement but I would like to have your opinions on size of M-H? 175 watt M-H or 250 watt M-h or do I need to use 400 watt metal halide to reach this depth? thanks to all. and this is a B.I.Y.application.

 

[wangotango]

you could probably get away with 250's if you keep your more light demanding corals, like the acropora, towards the top.
-Justin

 

[kwilliejr]

thank you wango tango, I was hoping that would be O.K. do you think I will be ok with the heat? I was thinking of runing 2 at 13K and 1 at 8500 M-H with 2 54 blue actonic what do you think?

 

[wangotango]

heat depends. will the lights be in an enclosed canopy? you could probably get away with a lot of fans and ventilation instead of a chiller if that were the case. whatever actinics will reach full tank length and be on either side of the halides is fine. are you doing a retrofit?
-Justin

 

[kwilliejr]

yes it will be a home built canopy and i was even thinking of venting to under the house as it stays even temperature.it is going to be a pentegon shape 38x38x12x12x37 at 28 inches tall . i tried fitting t-5 in there but they just dont fit. I think the most i could get was 408 watts.

 

[kwilliejr]

wango, how about it my freind, what do you think? 2 250 watt 14K bulbs in the middle / 1- 8500k 250 watt m-h toward the back, / 2- 54 wattx 47 inch long{that will just fit}- t 5-- ho actonic that are mounted at middle-toward the front. I think i could even get 2-39 watt t-5s in the far front if you think it would be better. help me out with bulb selection please! help, please!

 

[wangotango]

hmm pentagon. i thought this would be an easy rectangle. seeing as how a halide will cover a 2'x2' area you can get away with just 2 and be creative in positioning them. for the T5, as long as you get individual reflectors put as many as you can wherever you can and you're gonna have to be creative here too. maybe you can sketch it up?
-Justin

 

[kwilliejr]

ok, cool thats more like it! thank you!! I have drawn it up yo scale with all T-5 and with 3 and 4 halides. with two halides centered /toward back i think i could get 2 54 w t-5 and 2 39 watt t-5 in the front and 4-39 watt t-5 in the rear. wow how do you pick the bulbs for that set up?

 

[kwilliejr]

and also , since your being so kind as to help me! the mh have to be 8 to 10 inches off the water so i guess i can kind of bank the t-5 so as to not let them block to much of the mh lighting?

 

[kwilliejr]

have to go will check for your great advise later tonight thank you. kevin

 

[kwilliejr]

any suggestions? i think 2 250 mh bulbs???? 2-54 watt t-5 bulbs???? 2 39 watt t-5 bulbs???? then in the back 4 maybe six 24 watt t-5 bulbs???????????anyone! and thank you mucho much wango tango. kevin

 

[kwilliejr]

bump [whatever that means]

 

[wangotango]

lighting sounds good to me, the more the better really. and "bump" means "Bring Up My Post"
-Justin

 

[kwilliejr]

ok I think I have it. thanks you guys for the help! 2--250 watt M.H. with 13 or 14K bulbs...2-54 watt T-5 actonic...2-39 watt T-5 actonic...2-24 watt T-5 actonic. total T-5---234 watts...total M.H. 500 watts. 734 watts total. thanks again for the help! {135 gal reef with fish} 28 inch depth.