Pick Out a Lighting Setup For Me!!

[xwilsonx25]

Money is not really a factor, I just want the best lighting setup I can get (without costing me a fortune on my monthly electrical bill). I also want lighting that i dont have to worry about what i buy, i want to be able to keep just about anything in my tank.

a couple of factoids:

75 gallon tank
Dimensions 48"L x 18"W x 21" H

Right now im looking at the

48in Outer Orbit 2x150W 10K HQI-MH 1/ 2x130W Dual Actinic & 6 Lunar Lights

Coralife with Two 150 watt 10,000K double-ended HQI metal halide lamps, Two 96 watt True Actinic 03 Blue square-pin compact fluorescent lamps, Three 1 watt Lunar Blue-Moon-Glow 470nm LED lamp

somthing along the lines of these setups is what i was thinking of, i thought if i went to the 250 watt metal halide i would have a problem with heat and maybe burning.

 

[Salttanker]

Welcome to AA!!

Lighting is one of the biggest, and not to mention expensive commitments in this hobby you will make. As many of us can tell you from experience, get the lighting you need to begin with. Are you planning on a reef, FOWLR, FO tank?
Once you decide, you can select the required lighting. If this is a FO environment, then you can choose what is aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Outside of that, lighting requirement begin to change.
Let us know what you are planning to keep so we can assist you in selecting an appropriate lighting system. HTH

Mike

 

[xwilsonx25]

Lighting Equipment

First off thanks for the advice, to answer your question, ideally i want to be able to put just about anything i want in my tank, from coral, shrooms, clams, anemones...ect. I want my lighting for my tank to be good enough to where if i see something i want to buy then i can buy it and not worry about my lighting or having to upgrade my lighting.

 

[Salttanker]

That is the best way look at the lighting scenario. I did the same thing. Even though my tank is a FOWLR right now with 1 Anemone, I may plan to add things in there later that I didn't want to explain to the wife later how I need more lighting. Since you have a 4 foot tank, I would recommend 2 MH 250w retros (covers 2 feet each). I also run my 4x65w pc with them, but I really only use the actinic for simulating dawn to dusk. note: These bad boys get hot, so cooling fans will be in order. In addition, you will want to mount the retros about 9-12 inches off the water for safety reasons. Trust me on this one!
I bought my 250w MH lights for $180 each, which included shipping. Most people have their own opinions on lighting, but I prefer the 14K as it is in the middle of the spectrum. 10K to me offers too much white/yellow, I haven't tried the 20K, but I hear it has a great hue of blue. Some people use the 10K and supplement with VHO or PC. To save money, I personally would get the 14K or 20K so you won't have to supplement. This will be less costly later with maintenance. HTH

 

[klam]

For deeper(tall) tank like yours you might want to re-consider the the 250W MH. If you keep the MH at least 8" above the water surface burning shouldn't be an issue. Most of the time you would want the most light demanding corals near the top so burning shouldne be an issue. If it is you can always raise the lights up higher.

Heat can be solved by having a fan blow across the water surface to cool the tank by evaporation, buying a chiller is another option.

I have 150W DE(HQI) MH on a 14g tank and I got no complaints from my corals, anemone, or clams. So I would think that anything over 250W would work for you.