lighting an odd sized 175

[BluegrassReef]

the glass is on craigslist and it has a pic but it is only 3 pieces...don't know if it is worth it to have to get another piece of glass new and 1/2 " thick...I am still comtemplating(sp) it tho.

 

[Wally1402]

I have a tank with close to the same dimensions. My tank is 48x36x24. I went with one Lumenarc reflector ( the full size one ) and a 400W XM bulb driven by a Galaxy ballast. The tank is only a month old so I can't give much feedback other than the light speads out well and looks nice.

 

[cloakerpoked]

Was just at a local club meeting with Eric Bornaman as the speaker talking about feeding coral, and he said that their studies showed conclusively that corals couldn't use more light than at PAR readings of about 400...the rest has to come from feeding on rotifers, etc. Was very interesting lecture, and really made me think twice about my tank and the way I thought it should be set up.

 

[shred5]

like i said i'm running 3 48" square tanks with 1 400watt luminarc over each, been doing it for years and it works great for the softies and lps.

I never said it can not be done. I have a friend who has a look down that is about 4' X 3' and lights it with 1 400 .. I just think there is more efficient ways. That is a lot of light missing the tank the higher you go because the spread of light gets wider. My friend does not even need to light his basement because of all the spill light. The ends of his tank are a little dim but would be fine for softies. I work for a company that is in the lighting business and we do lighting calcs almost every day to determine light levels. Also you would need a good reflector like he luminarc like you have to be truly successful.

Dave

 

[cloakerpoked]

Yes, but 1 ballast+1 400w bulb+1 luminarc would still be a heck of a lot cheaper than 4 150w pendants or even regular mogul bulbs/sockets wired up to ballasts. Better from an electric efficiency perspective also. If the tank top was enclosed by a canopy and the inside was painted white, it would help some with the light spill, although certainly a lot of that light would still not make it to the tank. I'd be really interested in hearing if anyone who said they've done a 4'x4' tank with 1 400w bulb in a Luminarc (or any type of reflector for that matter) has done Par readings in their tank. If you have, or have the ability to, please post your results here...since without those readings, we really are making assumptions about how adequate this type of setup would be.