Lighting my new 180 (1 Viewer)

[chriskb3]

I've been spending the last couple of weeks trying to decide on the lighting for my new 180 and all I have been able to do is find even more options than I origionally had to choose from. Hopefully yall can help me out!

A little about the tank...The tank is custom made with a foot print of 3' x 4' and a height of 2'. The tank is euro braced. The aquascape is a single island in the center that is about 1' tall which will be entirely covered in SPS. The overall look I want to achieve is a well lit island in the center, while leaving the outer edge of the sand bed dimly/unlit. The tank is setup as a "peninsula" with 3 sides viewable.

I would like to only use halides, with the slight posibility of t5 supplements. I will be building my own suspendable rack for what ever lighting I choose, as I like the look of an open top tank. My original thought was to use a sinle 400watt on a lumenarc/max (full size or mini) reflector and a nice 14/20K bulb. Another thought was to use a single 250 watt DE, or if that wasnt enough output, 2 250 watt close together.

Sorry for the long post, these thoughts have been going through my mind non-stop since I picked up the tank a month ago. Any opinions, input, ect would be GREATLY appreciated. The main things I'd like to know are, what wattage/reflector would you go with at a 2' depth while considering the lighting effect I would like to achieve.


Thanks,
Chris

 

[Guest]

I would go with 2 x 250 Watt over the center at least 6" apart and 2 x 24" Actinic T5 over the center. I think this will highlight the center with light while allowing the edges to be dimmer.

 

[Metzzen]

with the island in the middle, i like the idea of a single 400W SE in a hanging pendant (PFO). with a 2' deep tank your going to need AT LEAST 250 watts so why go minimum when you can spend about the same and get LOTS of light. you can play with the heigth of the pendant to play with how much light goes where. All that being said, the island is 1' high so really your light only needs to go through a foot of water.

i think a DE bulb would be spread out to much just because of how most DE reflectors are built, they are more of a flood vs the "spotlight" of a circular hanging SE pendant.

I would go with a 20K bulb that way you wont need to add any actinic. If you add T5's then your lighting is going to start to look busy.

 

[chriskb3]

Thanks for the responses! I think I am still leaning most toward the 400 watt, I wish I could find a neat looking bell pendant though. This is why I was thinking about using a lumenarc 3 mini reflector, hoping that it would have a smaller lighting footprint than the full size. Plus I would get more area on top of the tank to work around with the smaller reflector.

 

[tas5tas]

If it was me, I would go with the full size Lumen Brights and use 2- 400w 12k Reeflux bulbs on coralvue ballasts. If you ever go to RC, check out Acroporanut's tank. Those are the lights, ballasts and reflectors he has and his tank is awesome. I am using 3 Lumen Bright minis and 250w 12k Reeflux bulbs on coralvue ballasts when I setup my 125g.

 

[decimal]

your growth will be alot slower with 12k reeflux than ushio or AC. or so i have heard...

 

[chriskb3]

2 -400 watters might be a little overkill for me. thats a lot of heat. I have seen arcopora nut's tank, the lighting is pretty nice, but im still mixed wether I like a crisp white or a nice blue. I've tried the reeflux 12K bulbs, and I think they still need some extra actinic supps. I also saw a setup using the 20K XM and it looked very nice.

Any thoughts on using a 400 watt on the L3 mini? or any other "mini" reflector?

 

[MarkieB]

I would like to only use halides, with the slight posibility of t5 supplements.

Why did you decide on halides and not T5 , just curious.

 

[chriskb3]

I have nothing against t5, don't get me wrong. but I have just liked halides from day one. I like the intensity of the light and the ripples are always a plus, it gives me the feeling that the water is actually moving. I also like the look of rimless and open top tanks, having a t5 setup capable of supporting SPS would likely cover the whole tank.

 

[Guest]

I believe he wanted a point light source as well, so that the edges of the tank would be dimmer than the center.

 

[chriskb3]

right, ive seen the look before. since the tank has a good amount of width, it gives the appearance that the water goes on into the darkness. If you have seen the oregonreef tank, you know what i'm talking about.