Lighting for 225G, 30" high reef tank

T

tullsterx

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Apr 21, 2006
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I'm making plans for lighting a 225G, 30" high tank.

I'm think about mounting a 72" 2-160W VHO light fixture and 3 DIY 400W Metal Halide lamps within a DIY hood. (1520 W - 6.7W per gallon)

1) Would this be enough lighting for a 30" deep tank?

2) How high should the MH lamps be mounted above the water?

3) What's the best way to ventilate the hood? Is there a "best" place to put the fans?

4) Should the top of the tank, under the hood, be covered, with glass? Or not? Or covered with something else?

Thanks
 
1. For a tank that deep, 400 watt lamps are about right, and three should work well. Have you thought about what color temperature (K value) you want? If you are going with 10000 K (which gives the most photosynthetic punch) , then you might want to beef up the amount of actinic light you're using. The corals may look a bit washed out otherwise.

2. I mount mine 9-12" above the surface.

3. My preferred way is to have the canopy mostly open at the top and the back completely open to allow heat to escape. You will want at least one fan at either end, and maybe one or two in the middle. I direct the fans inward, so they're not pulling salty air across themselves.

4. I prefer uncovered, to allow more light into the tank, and to allow evaporative cooling when it gets hot here. Eggcrate does not block the light, but keeps the fish in, so it's a good idea to put it over the tank.
 
What exactly is "eggcrate". When I've heard it mentioned here, I thought they were talking about. . . well, egg crates. But, if they don't block the light, I must be mistaken. What is it?
 
It's the plastic grating they put under fluorescent lights. Looks like this:
eggcrate.jpg
 
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