reef lighting

[Onestep]

I am going to build my own hood and lighting system for my 55g tank. It has a water depth of about 21", how much light will I need to keep every thing happy? I was planing on 2MH 175w bulbs and 2 VHO "one actinic and one daylight" 110w FL tubes. Would that be enough in your opinion? Any other suggestions as to what I should use for lighting?

Thanks for your help

[wayne]

Onestep,
If you can afford it, you should think about the 250w MH's. For a tank of 24" depth your "supposed" to use a 400w so a 21 is pretty close...

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[Playfair]

Unless you plan to keep colorfull SPS corals, 175w is fine (I use it on my own tank). The 10kK Germans with 2 actinic give the best appearance!

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[Doug]

Hi Onestep,

I have the same setup that Playfair has on my 90g (24 inches tall) tank and have had good luck so far. But, I went with the 175w MH because I was concerned about heat problems but since I have had them my two 4 inch fans have kept everything cool to the point that the heater has to come on to keep the temp up.

So, while I am happy with my success using the 2-175w MH's and the 2-110w VHO's I wish I would have gone with the 250w MH/VHO combo just to have a little more light.

HTH

Doug

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