Metal Halide 90gal watts?

[Yalitza96]

I need to get a Metal Halide for my 90gal tank. Does anyone know how many watts it needs to be?

thanks

 

[grimlock3000]

What do you plan to keep in the tank? There is no specific ammount of light you need for any given tank size, it depends on what you want in that tank.

 

[Yalitza96]

We are starting a reef tank.
At this moment we have
1 foxface
1 sailfin tang
1 blue angle
6 yellow tail damselfish
10 snails
10 blue leg hermit crabs
10 red hermit crabs
6 shrimps
15 live rocks
2 sand sifting sea star
and some sponges.

 

[Gatorfreak]

A general rule of thumb I've read is 3 or 4 times the gallons. I have 300W MH (2 x 150W) for my 90 gal and I was told when I started that it should be good.

 

[klam]

It also depends on how deep your tank is. 150W would not penetrate as deep as 400W can. Also with standard reflectors MH only has a good 2' light spread.

 

[captivereefs]

For the best all around set up 2-250 would work perfect!

 

[Salttanker]

Yes. I Agree with Darin. 2 250 MH works great for the 4 foot tanks.

Mike