lighting help

[smcooler]

setting up a 2x4x8'' deep lps lord tank, was thinking 4 vho's or 20k de 250 watt metal halide with the icecap reflector. thanks for any help.



stan

[JenDub]

54w t5's all the way =)

[reeferpnoy]

I agree lords will love the T5 set up

[Underwaterparadise]

T5 or PC for that shallow of a tank! You may also want to consider a 10-12" deep tank. I went with an 8" before and found it to be struggle to get good flow in the entire tank without having corals blown all over the place. A lil more water volume wouldn't hurt either Just my .02c

[smcooler]

t-5's ok what lamps and how hight from the water, this will be conected to the rest of my system about 300 gal. and how many lamps. thanks for the help.

[Underwaterparadise]

For a 2' wide tank I would go with 4-6 54w bulbs. For color I like a 3/1 ratio with 3 20k and 1 10k. For growth the opposite. If all corals will be on the bottom I would have the light 3-4" above the tank but would gradually lower it over time starting out at 6-7".

[gholtmeyer]

I attended the IMAC over a year ago, and E. Borman gave a presentation. In the presentation he discussed the topic of the better growth on 10k ver 20k. He said that from his research that there is not a true 20 bulb on the market. He went on to say that at best the bulbs are 12-14k bulbs with high spikes in the blue spectrum. He also said that from his tests, sps did not grow any better than sps in a 20k tank. Just for thought. So, go for what looks good to you is the moral of the story.