Lighting on my 125

[wku5]

I bought a used 125g tank and it came with 2 400w halides in the canopy. I feel like that is way over kill. Should i down grade to 2 250w instead and maybe down the road when i can afford it put a couple supplemental t5's?

[shifty51008]

if this is the standard 6' tank you will want to go with 3 250's.

[wku5]

it is the standard 6 foot. 2 250's wouldnt work for sps under them and then softies in the middle?

[wku5]

the 400's i have on there now cover the tank almost completely but burns right through anything i put under them, even if its on the sand.

[shifty51008]

I was only saying 3 because you should have braces and that will block the light and 2 sill leave darker area's but it will work putting softies in those parts. and also a standard MH coverage is 2' x 2' area

how high are the lights off the tank, and how many hours do you run them a day? I ran 2 400's over my 75 gal. and never burned anything. also don't forget you have to acclimate the corals to the lights, putting a few peieces of fiberglass window screen over the tank and removing one each week until none left works, or cutting your lighting down to 2 hours and upping it an hour each week also works good.

[wku5]

the lights are in a canopy and about 8 inches off. I cant move them any higher :(. THereis only one spot now that is any darker than anything else. Its the very middle but it still has plenty of light.

[shifty51008]

I run mine 12" off the tank. with 250's that will help. if your ok with the darker area's then go for 2, then you can always add n later if you want.

[wku5]

so 250s will def be better for me since im limited to how high i can go? plus with the t5's added later will add light to the middle where it will be just a tad darker. ALso i have terrible reflectors on the 400's, will lumenarcs make the coverage bigger?

[shifty51008]

well changeing to 250's help with heat but doubt it will help much with coverage. the lumenarcs will help with covergae but I beleive you will still need to raise them to ge the coverage of 3' x 3' they can get. not positive on that. and the T5's will help with filling in the darker parts of the tank.

either way you will still have to acclimate the corals to the lights with the ways I stated earlier.

[wku5]

yea.. the tank all my sps are coming from is t5 lighted so its def. a big change. I appreciate the help.

[gaspasser1]

Shifty,

do you need to run a chiller with your setup?

[shifty51008]

I have never needed a chiller with my setup. I do have a couple 6" clip on fans connected to a dual ranco temp controller but they hardly ever come on.

[gaspasser1]

thanks, i'm basically going to have the same lighting on my new 120, it's 4x2x2,and with this tank location i can hang the fixture at 12 inches.

[shifty51008]

no problem, on a 4x2 tank dual MH's will work great.

good luck to the both of you.