what is good lighting for a 90 gallon
- Thread starter amanda71
- Start date
J
jacob_poly
Guest
250 or 400 W Metal Halide + 260 W of PC (mixture of white and actinic).....try and have atleast 5 W/gallon
T
tizzo
Guest
Now a lot of people will say a lot of different things, but I will share my experience...
Had a BTA. Had 4 65w pc's. BTA not happy. He climbed the walls all the way to the top. Upgraded to 2 175w MH's-same result. Now I have 2 250w MH's. He's finally happy and hasn't moved since.:joy:
And I have a 90.
Had a BTA. Had 4 65w pc's. BTA not happy. He climbed the walls all the way to the top. Upgraded to 2 175w MH's-same result. Now I have 2 250w MH's. He's finally happy and hasn't moved since.:joy:
And I have a 90.
J
jacob_poly
Guest
I would recommend adding 250 W or 400 W Metal Halide to the 390 W that you already have. Are you sure about the 390 W though? Try and confirm the total wattage of what you have.
Thanks,
Jacob.
Thanks,
Jacob.
J
jacob_poly
Guest
Add 250 W MH to your 330 W. How old is your tank? Hope its atleast 8-10 months old. Also after adding the lights you might want to let the tank get used to it. Wait till the algae builds and dies. What anemone are you planning on?
amanda71
Member
thank you for all your help the tank has been setup for almost 2 years. I had a purple bubble tip it was doing awesome last year and one day it was gone! We tore the tank apart and We could not find anything. Right now we have an anemone am i'm now sure of the name however it look like a buble tip its got a tint of green/purple to it.
I think I have a lot of work to do when my husband bought our tank the guy told us all we needed was our filter that we bought and the power head (no Protien skimmer) so we listened to him and boy o boy my tank does not look clear. We had our tank tested an everything is fine. Our fish are so pretty looking and doing great! They have been in there for over a year. 2 huge clown fish, Yellow tang, bi-color blenny, coral beauty,coral banned shrimp, 1 yellow tail damsel, and 2 velvet damsel.
I talked to my friend last night because all of a sudden I have this dark red stuff everywhere. She said that her's was going the same untill she got a protien skimmer and started using jugs of water. I can not keep any corals just fish!!!!!
Sorry so long you are just very helpful.
I think I have a lot of work to do when my husband bought our tank the guy told us all we needed was our filter that we bought and the power head (no Protien skimmer) so we listened to him and boy o boy my tank does not look clear. We had our tank tested an everything is fine. Our fish are so pretty looking and doing great! They have been in there for over a year. 2 huge clown fish, Yellow tang, bi-color blenny, coral beauty,coral banned shrimp, 1 yellow tail damsel, and 2 velvet damsel.
I talked to my friend last night because all of a sudden I have this dark red stuff everywhere. She said that her's was going the same untill she got a protien skimmer and started using jugs of water. I can not keep any corals just fish!!!!!
Sorry so long you are just very helpful.
J
jacob_poly
Guest
You might want to investigate into a product called Rowaphos or a similar phosphate-silicate adsorbent. And maybe add a couple of Turbo snails to the tank in case there aren't any.
T
thomas712
Guest
Amanda-
My experience with Bubble tip anemonies is 4 years with 380 watt VHO. From one I have had over a dozen clones from the same one or other daughter anemonies. These were 2 years in a 55 and 2 years in a 90 gallon with the same lighting. They are doing well and reproducing, but they are not fully thriving.
I have recently upgraded my lighting to 440 watt VHO and 500 watt MH. The MH bulbs are 2-250 10,000 k Ushio bulbs. Its still to early to say what is going on in the tank, however the corals and 8 or 9 anemonies that I do have seem to be reaching and extending more than usual. I am still not at a full lighting schedual, but I think that I will only run the halides for 2 hours per day to see what changes occur.
With 360 watts like you have I would try to keep enough live rock so that your anemone could, depending on what type you will keep, can climb up to the top 1/3 of your water column, if it so chooses.
If you decide to go with a bubble tip anemone then I highly suggest you try to find one that is tank raised.
Thomas
What town in Mich you from?
My experience with Bubble tip anemonies is 4 years with 380 watt VHO. From one I have had over a dozen clones from the same one or other daughter anemonies. These were 2 years in a 55 and 2 years in a 90 gallon with the same lighting. They are doing well and reproducing, but they are not fully thriving.
I have recently upgraded my lighting to 440 watt VHO and 500 watt MH. The MH bulbs are 2-250 10,000 k Ushio bulbs. Its still to early to say what is going on in the tank, however the corals and 8 or 9 anemonies that I do have seem to be reaching and extending more than usual. I am still not at a full lighting schedual, but I think that I will only run the halides for 2 hours per day to see what changes occur.
With 360 watts like you have I would try to keep enough live rock so that your anemone could, depending on what type you will keep, can climb up to the top 1/3 of your water column, if it so chooses.
If you decide to go with a bubble tip anemone then I highly suggest you try to find one that is tank raised.
Thomas
What town in Mich you from?
oyam1
Member
hey
im selling a dual CusomSealife 175w ballast. $135+shipping.
2- 175w 14k bulbs only 3-4 months old (run 6-8h qd)$25ea
also selling 2-250w hamelton MH ballasts $100ea and have Iwasaki 250w 65k bulbs with a good 6-12 months of lie in them.$20ea:happyfish
look on line you can get other good deals.......MH is the way to go, you will love them.
im selling a dual CusomSealife 175w ballast. $135+shipping.
2- 175w 14k bulbs only 3-4 months old (run 6-8h qd)$25ea
also selling 2-250w hamelton MH ballasts $100ea and have Iwasaki 250w 65k bulbs with a good 6-12 months of lie in them.$20ea:happyfish
look on line you can get other good deals.......MH is the way to go, you will love them.
nats
New Member
Hi Amanda I have a 90gal with 520w PC I don't have any anemonies yet but plan to in the near future. I hope the 520w of PC will be enough. I had given thought to the MH everyone seems to love them but I didn't want to deal with the excess heat and a chiller (I have limited space in my office where my tank is). Good Luck
T
thomas712
Guest
Originally posted by AMANDA71
Thomas about how much did your light run you and is there a certain brand name?
Well, I got lucky and purchased it used from someone who was breaking there tank down. New it would have cost about $900 or so, I got it for much less than that.
Yearly cost to replace the bulbs is about $300 dollars. But if you don't run the MH bulbs but a couple of hours per day, you should be able to get them to live alot longer. Just to replace the VHO is just less than $100. The MH bulbs are about $90 per.
First thing you notice with MH bulbs is how bright your tank is, you can see everything.
Second thing you notice is just how dirty the tank is.
