Lighting help

[swoopx]

I'm brand new to aquariums and I am trying to figure out what lighting system I will need. I have a 110g aquarium 5feet in width. Right now I have a few fish and live rock but I want to start growing coral in it.

There are standard Fluorescents in there right now so I will need some new lighting. I'm looking to keep soft corals in there right now so I'm going to need around 400w? I was looking at getting http://www.hellolights.com/603lavhoreki.html is there something better I should be looking at?

[Mr.Lloyd]

If you have a canopy you can do many things with a lot more light than 400 watts.If you plan on an open tank then you can hang lights over your tank.The selection of 5' fixtures is much less than 4' but if you hang your lights you can easily adjust the distance from bulbs to the water.Look at the sponsors section and check out lighting for all that carry them.You have a lot of reading to do.Best wishes.

[Avi]

How deep is the tank?

[swoopx]

its 24" deep and it has a canopy.

[AZDesertRat]

I built my canopy and installed 2- 24" PFO parallel reflectors with a 4" gap at each end and in the middle. The gaps allow hot air to rise up towards the top There is a 4" DC powered computer fanmounted in each end blowing in and 4-4" holes in the enclosed top directly over the reflectors for heat to escape without losing light on the ceiling. I use 2x250w Ushio 10k MH and 2x140w URI Super Actinic VHOs and keep just about everything in my system.

[Avi]

I've been fairly happy with power compact lighting over my 24-inch deep tank, though I'm considering replacing them with T5's and or MH's because the PC's are going to go on my freshwater planted tank. I think you'd be fine with PC's if you are going for softies only but if you might ever try some more light demanding corals in the future, go for the MH's or the T5's from the start...But research before you go with those because some are more effective than others (for example, TEK T5's are widely considered better than any other T5 units.) There are good threads here in RC on the subject.

[swoopx]

anything wrong with just getting VHO's?

[AZDesertRat]

I have seen some awesome tanks full of SPS and LPS lit only with VHOs and growing like crazy.

[swoopx]

I am now thinking I want to option of doing more light heavy coral, will I be able to do this with 8 X 54w T5's? Or is that just not enough light?

[fservillon]

Check this out on ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=46314&item=4353198343&rd=1
I bought the 250Watt version with 20K bulbs and it puts out a lot of light on my 55gallon. hth.

[Avi]

swoopx....take a look at this thread and it'll answer your question and then some......

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=446846