i guess a lot of you must be tired of new tanks and all the questions, i've read the forums, these and others and it seems each tank is a new challange for each of us. I had a great reef about 10 or more years ago, a 110, i kept for a year and a half before i lost it to a fire. I've had tanks, fresh and salt for 40 years. The questions i have are basic. I bought a oceanic 72 by 24 by 18, hex front, and i can't gt a line on the gallons, cubic inches devided by 231, gives me one number, other tanks here smaller, are more gallons... I have been shopping for lights, i don't want lighting to limit what i can put in it, i plan a couple hunred lbs of LR, sps, mushrooms and zoes.. i never met a coral i didn't like.. Thanks in advance...john
another new tank question
- Thread starter johnpoolw
- Start date
Sounds like a 135. If it were my tank, I'd put 3X250 watt metal halides over it. Some might say 400s would be even better for some SPS.
Thanks, that was the direction i was leaning, but didn't if MH was enough, because of the height, 250 seems like the recogmended wattage, would i gain anything if i add other light spectrums.. 10k mh seem to be the standard but do i need to add any other lights, vho or pc's.. seems like most reefs tend to have a combination rather then a single lamp type.. another quick question, lights for the holding tank for plants, and what would you recogmend for a skimmer.. seems like they are millions of choices and almost as many schools of thought..
Good 10000 K halides will have plenty of the blue spectrum for coral growth. Adding actinics (PC, VHO, T5) will help with a few things, though. First, the blue will help bring out the fluorescent colors in the corals. Also, people generally don't have halides on for more than about 8 hours a day, so the supplementary lights give you longer day lengths.