Suggestions please!: Lighting for 180g: MH+VHO

[Nathan1]

I am moving to Pennsylvania and am going to be buying a new setup (180g (72")). I want to know the most cost effective lighting setup that:

1. Looks good (physically)
2. Is Aesthetically pleasing
3. Allows sufficient light (175W is too small IMO)
4. IS NOT TOO EXPENSIVE! (Less than $1000)

5. ANYONE HAVE A USED LIGHTING SETUP THAT THEY ARE SELLING?!

Suggest some options for me.

-Nathan

 

[mutley29]

Depending on what your going to keep, i would have to say 400 watt 20k MH's, thats what i have and everything is doing great.

i bought retrofit kits and put them in my weird flip-top canopy i have, the only down side is heat, as i have no perspex or acrylic layer between tank top and bulb.

With the 20k's you won't need actinic supplementation

IMHO

HTH
Anton

 

[Nathan1]

400W 20K. I am a 10K advocate, but am willing to consider other options.

Anyone else have a suggestion too?

-Nathan

 

[tenshi]

You might want to check out "this thread" I started as I was trying to decide what my lighting scheme would be for a 180. I've changed my mind now though and I'm pretty sure I'll be going with 4 - 10k DE 250watt MH and 4 - 72" VHOs and the amount of gallons has increased by 50 gallons by adding 6" to the width of my tank that I'll have made.

 

[Anonymous]

Tenshi,
3 250's is plenty for that tank, you don't need 4 unless you have an 8' tank.
I just switched from 10k's to 20k's, and I'm much happier with how the tank looks.

Jim

 

[tenshi]

First the apology, "Nathan I'm sorry to hijack your thread."

Tenshi, 3 250's is plenty for that tank, you don't need 4 unless you have an 8' tank

Well the thing is this JimM, I was going to get a standard 180 but now I've decided to get a custom tank made. It will measure 72"x30"x25". That means that now I have an extra 6 inches worth of tank width to cover with light. The only way to do that is to raise MH a couple of inches to get the coverage, right. If I raise the lights I lose the amount of intensity I'm getting to the bottom of the tank, which is important to me because I plan to get some clams and plate corals, besides the SPS. I thought of maybe using 3 SE 400 watt bulbs, but that would mean that I would be using 200 more watts and the bulbs wouldn't be as eficient as using 4 DE 250 watt bulbs. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[dougc]

I am running 3 ReefOptix 250w pendants with Ushio 10Ks over my 210, which is 5" deeper than the 180, and it is plenty of light. Although the 20K bulbs probably look nicer, I wanted the punch of the 10Ks for this deep tank. I am also running 4 5-foot VHO actinics, which compensates for the lack of blue spectrum in the 10Ks. All of this is on IceCap ballasts.

The SPS frags that I have in the tank have held their color nicely. My rockwork is pretty low, so nothing is really right up close to the lights. If you want to judge for yourself, you are welcome to drop by and take a look. The tank is has only been set up for about 6 months, so it is still pretty sparse.

I am in Cherry Hill, so it is not too far from you.

Doug