need help...new 225, or 180 gallon reef..which is better

[kmark1980]

i ordered a 180 gallon acrylic reef tank and they put a fork through it in shipping. they are offering me a 225 gallon($1200 more expensive) tank to replace it, or i can wait another month for a replacement to be made along with a 10% discount.
normally i would be wanting to jump all over the larger and more expensive 225 gallon tank, but my concern is the extra 6" from top to bottom. i want my tank to be able to host a large varity of coral and i'm concerned about the light penetration with the deeper tank.
what would you guys suggest. take the 225 30" deep tank, or wait for the standard 6" long 24" high tank to be made. as it is an acrylic tank it would not be safe to upgrade the lighting to 400w as it could cause bowing later on. my main concern is light penetration. advice??

 

[zanoshanox]

how long is the tank? But you'll have no problem getting some 250 watts to penetrate to the sandbed, 24" isnt that deep. You'll prolly need at least two 250's for the eintire tank...(assuming its around 6 ft)

 

[kmark1980]

thanks for the reply. i know that the lights will have no problem with the 6' long 24" deep tank that i was originally going to get. my main question was that they are offering me a 6' long 30" deep 225 gallon as a replacement for my 180 that was damaged in shipping. i'm concerned about the lights penetrating down through the 30" deep water. i'm just trying to decide wether to have them make and send another 180, or to take the 225 right now. any sugestions on that?

 

[acrylic51]

I'd go with the 225, but there isn't any needs for 400W MH's to penetrate the depth of 30".....You won't gain a thing with the 400W MH's but a higher electical bill and more heat.....DE 250W MH will penetrate the same as the 400W MH's.....
As far as the comment about need 2 MH's to cover the tank is incorrect......Standard MH reflectors cover a 2'x2' area, so being 6' you'd need 3 MH's for proper coverage......The other option would be to use Lumearc reflectors and they have a coverage area of 3'x3' and they make th Lumenarcs' in DE style now as well.....

 

[kmark1980]

awesome thanks for the advice. i actually recognize your id. i was looking at the pics of the fish room you set up. nice job! i think i will go with the 225 then. i'll probably just have to put a few of the coral a little higher up then i maybe would have otherwise. what exactly are the lumerarc reflectors? is that something you add inside the tank to get light to reflect lower, or something you add to the lighting system in the canopy? thanks.

 

[acrylic51]

Thanks for the compliment........You won't need or shouldn't have issues running 250's and having to worry about placing things up high.....I've seen 150W HQI's with acros and clams on the bottom with 30" tank depth.......
Lumenarcs are probably the best reflective reflector on the market right now.....A little pricey, but once you see the difference between the standard spider reflectors, PFO reflectors, or even the ReefOptics I,II, or III you wouldn't go back.....There's alot of guys who were running the ReefOptics and swore by them till they tried the Lumenarc reflectors......Enough said they didn't go back......
Lumenarcs do take up a bit of room so depending on your canopy design and setup might not work for everyone.......I don't have a good pic of my reflectors since they are already mounted, but you can check them out at SunlightSupply dot com.......I'll try to pull one of my reflectors out of place to get a pic from you.....Alot of your light penetration has to do with the quality of the reflector......
Actually last night during water flow testing, just the reflection of the water off the reflector made me keep looking to see if I had left my inspection flashlight on........They are amazing......

 

[startrfish]

There will always be enough light. (that part is up to you) you have more to worry about than light with that mammoth tank

 

[kmark1980]

that sounds relly cool. i will definately check out that site. a picture would be cool. i already told the store to go ahead and get me the 225 gallon tank. it would have been hard to pass up seeing as it was a $1000-$1200 better value for free.
one last question for you....black, or blue background and why? thanks for your time.

 

[reefkprz]

I would suggest the black background to help stimulate coraline growth. I ran an expiriment on four squares two acrylic and two glass one of each was painted black on the back. the black one grew faster on both types and the plain acrylic grew coraline faster than the plain glass.. so I took it a step further and scuffed a piece of glass with sand paper (150 grit). and put it with a piece of acrylic the growth rate was very similar though the acrylic still grew slightly faster.I have also done an expiriment pointing a powerhead at one piece of glass and not at another. the one with the power head pointed at it grew at almost three times the rate (estimated)

 

[acrylic51]

The background color IMO is totally peronal.....I personally like the black rather than the blue......If you stop and think about it, your overflows are probably black and if you use a blue background it makes the overflows stand out.....Something, most of us try to hide......
On the statement made by Reefkprz with the growth of coraline algae I believe what's he's saying and have seen a difference between the black, blue and plain glass...I also believe it makes taking pictures alot easier with the black background, but I'm not a professional photographer.......

 

[acrylic51]

Sorry to double post, but blue would be totally cool, if you back lit the aquarium and used a backlighting technique to simulate endless depth in the tank as long as a shimmer in the back panel......I might have to dig up that article on that. Will post a pic of the reflectors

 

[kmark1980]

yeah, kind of the same place i'm in. i really like both blue and black backgrounds. the tank i have now has a black background and the algae has grown steadily. the nice thing about the blue is that it brightens things up so much and does help the live rock and fish stand out even more.
i'll have to look into backlighting the aquarium. sounds like a good idea.
the lfs guy had mentioned something about the reflectors too, so between the pic you send and what he has to say i may go that route for sure. when you say they are expensive....how expensive do you think they are?

 

[acrylic51]

Sorry about the delay of the pics......And please excuse the dust still under constrution and haven't fully dusted everything yet......These Lumenarcs are just totally awesome.......I love how they are cut and the different angles reflect more light into the tank than any reflector out right now.....You'll notice they are alot bigger than your normal reflector, so space can be an issue.......The also have an adjustabe socket the piece off the reflector which is the white piece that you can adjust to move the bulb within the reflector, so alittle extra added perk that the standard reflectors don't have as well.....
Also included some pics of the lighting ballasts....I'm running magnetic ballasts instead of electronic, and there's pros and cons to both, so don't be misled on that issue.....The silver finned cases are the MH ballasts and are double 250W ballasts contained in each box for a total of 4, I'm also running to IceCap 660 ballasts for my atinics, and mounted in front of the MH ballasts are the relay boxes for the Neptune AquaController......They are DC4HD's which I'd recommend their use if you run the AquaController with MH's.....

 

[kmark1980]

that is quite the setup. thanks for the pics. i'll be getting my whole setup within the next week-2weeks. i'll have to check to see how much room is in my canopy. i'm pretty sure it is a 15", or 17" canopy. how large of a canopy is needed for the reflectors? if they will fit then i definately will get them. that would completely easy my concern about getting enough light all the way down to the sandbed. thanks and have a nice night.

 

[acrylic51]

I'd have to go out and measure the height needed to mount them....I think off the top of my head it was 7", but I'm not sure I will measure and give you an exact height of them.....

 

[acrylic51]

I just measured and with the height of the reflector is just under 7", but if you have a 15" canopy they could work for you!!!!!

 

[kmark1980]

awesome, i checked it out and i think it will work. thanks for all of your help. you definately went out of your way! have a nice weekend.
mark

 

[misfit]

Im running in my AGA 210 3 x 250 HQI DE Ice cap ballasts and reef optics 3 pendants, And I have no problem keeping anything.
But I do have to say those Lumenarcs Look SWEET, wish they had them when i set my tank up.

 

[acrylic51]

Thanks.....Check Custom Aquatics I know they have them and just talked to Yupi he picked up a couple at a decent price.......
Yeah I've talked to a bunch of guys who use to run the ReefOptic III pendents and after seeing these light, they swapped and never went back.....They also give a broader coverage area....