Lighting a 5 foot tank

[Jocko]

I thought I remembered seeing threads about this before, but I can't seem to find the right search keywords. Thus, I've decided to start a new thread.

I have a 150 tank that's 5x2x2. I was originally planning on doing 3 x 250 watt w/ Phoenix 14ks & Lumenarc DE reflectors. But now I'm wondering if 2 x 400 watt might be better.

Does anyone have any strong opinions on this matter or will it really not make any difference?

Thanks!

 

[Mrs Fish]

Hi Jocko ...

I have a 5ft tank - a 110. I have been using a 4ft lighting unit (48") mounted above the water and resting on 2 aluminum arms that are attached to the wooden top of the tank.

At first I didn't like that the MH light didn't go right to the edge, but now I have become very fond of the slightly darker 6 inches of tank at each end. The great thing about it, is that I can grow leathers, xenia and some LPS that prefer less light. I have a gorgonian and polyps and a few other things that actually make it look like a proper reef environment with darker bits. When I say 'dark' .. I don't really mean dark. The light really spreads and it's certainly light enough for favia, and pink zoas, etc.

I now have a corallife pro unit with 2 x 250w 10,000k MH bulbs and about 196w of actinics.

I've posted a few photos so you can see the effect.

Sue

 

[Mrs Fish]

Right side ...

 

[Mrs Fish]

Left side ...

 

[Cheetos]

IMO I would go with the 3x250's. I think with 2 bulbs no matter what wattage they are you will have darker areas on the outsides....unless this is the look you are going for!

 

[MFreef]

I have a 6 foot tank 2x250-14k mh 2x96 pc10k 1 96 pc actinic..my tank is lit end to end

 

[Cheetos]

No darker areas?

 

[MFreef]

The only dark area I have is shadows from the braces really..of course the pc retros are 3 ft long so they light the tank pretty well on their own.

 

[BrianMac]

I have a 5' tank with 2 250 w MH bulbs and also 48" acinics. Works fine in my opinion. I orgianally had a 60" outer orbit fixture that has since been retired since I built a canopy

 

[Jocko]

Well, I'm planning on doing MH-only. I guess a big factor is whether there is a 400 watt bulb out there that is reasonably equivalent to the Phoenix 14000k.

 

[MikeG]

I don't see the need for 400's on a 24" deep tank. I would go 2 SE 250's with full size luminarcs if you can fit them. This would give good coverage over the entire tank.

 

[notoriousB]

I have two 14k hamilton SE 250's over my 100g seaclear which is 5' long and ~20" tall and I think the lighting is great.

 

[ZReef]

I was planning on doing two lumenarc minis with only 175W iwasaki bulbs plus some 48" T5 actinics on my 5' 150g.

 

[Mrs Fish]

I think I'd bump it up to 250's if I were you...

 

[Jocko]

Interesting... I hadn't thought of 2x250. I guess 500 watts just doesn't seem like much over a 150. Any reason people are recommending SE? I was pretty set on using Phoenix 14000k DE if I went with 250's.

I suppose I could always just start out with 2 and go to 3 if I needed to.

 

[MikeG]

Interesting... I hadn't thought of 2x250. I guess 500 watts just doesn't seem like much over a 150. Any reason people are recommending SE? I was pretty set on using Phoenix 14000k DE if I went with 250's.

I suppose I could always just start out with 2 and go to 3 if I needed to.

I suggested SE so you could use full size luminarcs and get better coverage over the whole tank. If not using luminarcs, then I would go with DE bulbs.

 

[Jocko]

That makes sense. I was thinking of using the DE luminarcs. But yeah those are smaller. I'll have to take a look at the difference in light distribution between the two.

 

[MikeG]

That makes sense. I was thinking of using the DE luminarcs. But yeah those are smaller. I'll have to take a look at the difference in light distribution between the two.

I havn't seen any data for anything but the full size ones so if you find any please post it.

 

[Jocko]

This doesn't cover the mini DE one, but I did find Sanjay data for the full size and mini mogul Lumenarcs. Surpisingly not a huge difference. This data is kind of old, so not sure if the reflectors have had any improvments since then.