last lighting ? before buying need advise

[Pufferpoison]

ok i've decided to go with the Tek Light systems. I talked to a guy from Reefgeef.com and he said that since my 90 gallon was 18inches deep that i wouldn't need the 8x54W system and that would be way overkill. he said that the 6x54W light would still be overkill but ok. one day i plan on having SPS corals. the 6x54 light is only 15 inches deep and is made for an 18 inch tank but the 8x54w light is 19 inches deep and is make for a 24 inch tank. he said that it would stick out (since my tank is 18 and the fixture is 19) but i don't want to have to re-do the lights later.

Since the light fixture would stick out, is this bad or ok? he said that i could run only one side of the light until i got the corals that needed the right light. but i don't want to under-do it since i won't have money later to add different lights. so the ? is tek 8x54 or tek 6x54??????????????

 

[Fishieness]

if youa re going sps, then the more lighting the better. i wouldnt say its overkill at all.

 

[mogurnda]

As long as the overhang doesn't waste the light, I'd go with the 8X54 fixture. On my 90, I am running 2X54 T5 and 2X250 10000K XM halide (high PAR), and that works well for me. The acropora seem to really like it.

 

[Crown Royal]

You'll probably be fine with 6x54W over a 90 gallon for SPS, but 8x54W would coincide with the "more light is better" approach to SPS husbandry.

Dave pointed out a good caveat that the 8-bulb unit could waste a lot of light if there's an overhang so that the amount of light actually going into the tank may not be much more than with the 6-bulber.

Be aware that some low-light corals won't like the extreme brightness of 8 or even 6 bulbs. Because it's not MH, you won't have as many shadows to hide such corals.

Whichever one you go with, be sure to properly light acclimate the corals by either putting a screen or two between the lights and the tank for a few weeks or slowly lowering the lights from higher up.