Let there be light!

[weinie]

And hopefully there will be with your help!!!

I'm am considering purchasing a 150gal acrylic tank w/ stand and canopy. Anyway, I've been doing lots of research on retrofit lighting but I'm still undecided which way to go. This will be my first reef tank but I hope to one day have some great corals in it. However, I don't want to have to upgrade my lighting later on.

Im sure I'll get a billion responses as to what is the "best" lighting!
Do I go with Compact Flourescent, VHO, MH, T5, or a combination? How many, what wattage, colors, etc etc!!?!?!?

Keep in mind, i need to mount it in my canopy (not hang it). I dont know how much venitlation i will have under the canopy and if it will boil the water or melt the acrylic if it is too hot.

 

[Len]

A couple of questions: Does your acrylic tank have a center brace(s) and if so, where are they located? How tall is your canopy?

Answering these may help narrow down the list of possiblities for you.

 

[weinie]

I know the canopy will be 7".

I'm not sure about brace or braces. I would be ordering a tank from tenecor. Here is the link with a schematic of a smaller one. The one I will get is 72" long with the trapezoidal prefilter in the middle of the back. I believe it should look sorta like this one in the link (but im not sure).

http://www.tenecor.com/rectangularreef.php

 

[ChrisRD]

Personally I prefer metal halide lighting, but if your canopy is only 7" tall and you're going with an acrylic tank, MH may not be an option. How tall will the tank be?

 

[weinie]

only 20" high

 

[ChrisRD]

Without knowing the centerbrace layout, as Len mentioned, it's hard to say for sure, but it sounds like you won't have enough room in your canopy for halides if it's only going to be 7" tall.

Considering that and the fact that the tank is not all that deep I might go with T-5s personally. Although more efficient, one downside to T-5s in this scenario is that there is currently no 72" T-5 lamps which means you either get by with the 60" lamps or use a bunch of 36" lamps. VHOs would probably be my third choice, although one upside to them is that they're available in 72" lengths. I'm not a big fan of PCs anymore - especially for larger tanks, so I wouldn't really consider that option...

It really boils down to what you want to keep. If you see yourself getting interested in Acropora and Tridacna clams down-the-road then I would try to increase the height of the canopy and go MH. If you just want to keep softies and relatively low light stony corals like Euphyllia sp., etc., then fluorescents should be fine.

JMO & HTH