what kind of Lighting for a 75g reef tank???

[rollout487]

im setting up a 75 g reef tank soon and i need 2 know what kind of lighting i need. i will have all kinds of live rock and corals and inverts. i have been looking at the florescent type "tube" lighting and i will need about 8 of them to have enough wattage. a guy told me i need about 800 watts of light for this size tank...? are metal halides good? but i dont like how u have to mount them and how you have 2 cool them. how are power compacts? im tryin to stay under 200$... i have lots of figean live rock im about to buy... let me know what i should use... thanks

 

[wrassecal]

All depends on what you want to keep in the way of corals. If sps then you need to go with MH. If some lps and softies my favorite would be at least 440 watts of vho which would probably be close to your budget. Do a search here on lighting and you will get a multitude of ideas. HTH