Deep depth tank owners

[tchristman]

I am in the process of building an 96 x 36 x 29 tank and would be interested in hearing what people with deep depth tanks use for lighting.
I currently have a 210 and I use 3 Lumen Max 3 reflectors with Phoenix 14k 250. I am pleased with that and may just add a 4th pendant. Not sure it will give great coverage of the entire tank but the back being a little darker may even add to the depth of the tank.

I have also debated going with T5 as use them now for dusk/dawn. To light it properly I am looking at a large amount of money to replace bulbs each year to run T5.

Your suggestions and input are appreciated.

It is mixed reef with quite a bit of SPS.

 

[enderg60]

400w Halides in custom reflectors and T5's.

Im running PFO HQI ballasts and am going to upgrade to the high pressure sodium ballasts for more light. I would absolutly go with a 4th halide for a 7' tank.

I figured for my 72x36 tank I would need 36 3' T5's(or about $720 a year to replace them) With 3 halides and 4 t5's im looking at $380 a year for more light.

 

[tchristman]

I had to correct it to an eight foot tank. That is what I am figuring on the bulb replacements alone. I run 250 on my 210 and gets good coverage at the bottom of the tank. This tank with be the same 29 inches to the bottom as the other tank. Just worried about the 36 inch deep tank.

 

[oz]

IMO it all depends on what you want to keep in the tank and where. If you want to keep high light SPS close to the sandbed you'd probably need to put 250's very close to the water to have decent light penetration that far down and with that depth spread.

I have almost the same tank dimensions and you can check out some PAR readings from my build thread relating to 400W and 1000W with different reflectors. Sorry, I can't remember what pages but it was early on in the process.

I ended up with 2x1000's (Helios 20k lamps) and VHO's for dawn/dusk only. Par and spread are perfect for my needs and corals are growing nicely. 4x400's would have worked as well but I wanted more clearance above the tank for access and air control.

Looking forward to your build thread. You should start that so you have a track record of all the questions like this during the process.

 

[acroholic]

I have a Marineland 300 DD tank (72 x 36 x 27.5) with 3x 400 watt Radium bulbs with LB Large pendants, and I have pretty good coral growth and color, at least IMO.

 

[jhutto]

Dave's tank is outstanding!

 

[tgriffin]

jhutto;595530 wrote: dave's tank is outstanding!

+100