Lights for my 75gal recommendations!!!

[DaddyJax]

My 75gal setup needs lights!! I plan on a coral and live rock with few fish and giant clams!! but dont want my living room to look like a nuclear reacter!!
any suggestions?

[mech0522]

i have a 30 gal tank with pc orbits with lunar light and all my stuff is doin good

[turbodiesel01]

Clams will need alot of light...
I would suggest VHO's as a minimum and preferably Metal Halides

[abfleck]

Originally posted by DaddyJax
My 75gal setup needs lights!! I plan on a coral and live rock with few fish and giant clams!! but dont want my living room to look like a nuclear reacter!!
any suggestions?

Clams need lots and lots of light. I am in the process of looking for some Metal halides, so that I can get some clams. Good luck to you!

Fleck

[DaddyJax]

What kind of wattage? Im a little confused because recommended is 5-8 watts per gal for clams but all I see for 48" is 440 watt MH lamps!!
is this right or am I missing something??

[gabulldawg12]

DaddyJax,
Depending on the depth of your tank, 2 250W MH will be perfect for your setup. I have been doing a tremendous amount of research on reef lighting(I am in the process of setting up a 90g), and I am probably going to go with a MH/T5 combo.
Chris

[AnemicOak]

For my 75 I went with 2x 250w PFO pendants with Hamilton 14K bulbs also 220w of VHO actinics (one white, one super r). It will all be enclosed in a custom canopy.

[leheath]

Just to add a different point of view - you might consider T5 lighting. 4-6 T5 bulbs should allow you to keep pretty much anything, including clams. T5 lighting is much cheaper to run, produces less heat, and the bulbs only need replacing every 18 months. There have been several threads recently on people's success with t5 lighting, so it might be something to investigate before making your final decision.

Just my $0.02 :)

[Larry Waughon]

I would look at 2-250w, MH, 10k; you could put what you like in your tank and if you like the look you would need no other lights.

[Omidon4]

I'm going with 2 X 250Watt MH with 2 X VHO actinic supplementation on my Bowfront 72Gal Tank. (Still working on getting all the equip, slowly but surely I'm getting there!)

[bulldogfish]

I have a 75. And have the nuclear reactor over it. LOL. 940 total watts.

2- 4ft VHO Super Atinics
2- 4ft VHO Atinic Daylights
2- 250W MH 10K

I stagger the off and ons though. To simulate the sunrise and sunset. I dont ever have a full 940W on at one time. I only run my MH for 5 hours a day and the sps in my tank are doing very well.