What kind of lights needed in 220 tank for sps

[drew567]

Hi i currently have a t5 48in light with 8 fixtures. I want to start growing sps corals but dont think the light is strong enough because my tank is 30in deep. Any suggestions?

[grigsy]

8 x 54 watt T5 with good reflectors should be enough light.

If it is not, then based on my experience, go with metal halide. They work great for SPS.

2 x 250 watt or 2 x 400 watt would work great for 30" deep SPS tank.

[drew567]

Ok is it better to buy a retro kit metal halide?

[James404]

Im in the process of building a 210g which is pretty much same size, and can tell you with that depth of tank you are looking at 3 x 400w MH's if you want good coverage.

[BubbaPhish]

Drew,
The T5's will work if they have good reflectors and bulbs. You will be limited to SPS placement with the T5's. Half way to the top of the tank should be fine.

I ran 20 36 watt T5 bulbs over my 210 for over a year with no lighting issues.
Now I am running 3 250 watt halides, since I am more into SPS.
Just be sure to have quallity reflectors and bulbs in whatever you run.

To me 400 watt halides are over kill unless you are going to run 20K bulbs. My setup consist of ice cap ballast, large lumen bright reflectors and 14k aqua connect bulbs. I have SPS growing on my sandbed. The reflectors are 18" above my tank and I have no heat issues. My tank barely hits 80 degrees in the dog days of summer with no chiller here in the south.
I wound up swapping out my T5's for halides because the fans in my fixture were crapping out due to high humidity , big suprise for a $1k fixture, but they did keep the corals happy.

Kevin

[drew567]

Thanks guys and Kevin do you only run the three MH fixtures in the tank and nothing else? Also is a double ended bulb better than single?

[BubbaPhish]

I only run the three halides, my tank has no canopy, pendants hang from the ceiling. The pendants are huge.......... With a good bulb matched to the ballast you may not need actinics. I prefer VHO actinics versus T5's. The VHO's seem to have more pop to my eye. I don't reallhy have an opinion of double ended versus single ended bulbs. However the Phoenix 14k bulbs are good and need no actinics and their double ended bulb is cheaper then the single ended one.

[drew567]

Alright well thanks allot