135g with 4 DE 250watt halides?

Ok so I just got my tank all setup. I have a 135g it's 72x18x25
It came with a nice oak stand and canopy. I also had 6 ICECAP pendant's (250watt double end units) I modded the canopy and mounted 4 of the icecap pendants on the underside of the canopy. They sit about 12" above the surface. I just bought 4 of the new USHIO 14k lights. Right now the tank stays around 80 degrees with the lights running.

So just a few questions. My tank is super bright. Do you think this is overkill on lights? If anything won't my corals grow very well?
I really like more of a blue look, anybody know if switching to XM 15k's would look better?

I don't have any actinic lights. I guess I could always throw some in to achieve the blue look and get good growth with the halides.

I would have just ran 3 lights except my tank has a center brace made of glass and if I put one light in the middle and one on each end I get a damn shadow effect in the middle of my tank.

What do you guys think?

 

If you a bluer MH bulb, try Phoenix 14K, they are really blue, but also really bright at the same time. As for overkill, 4 is up there, but I don't think it's over kill. The downside to too much light is that your corals will actually slow in growth because they will bleach. This means they lose the algae that gives them color and nutrition. You will really need to consider placement of corals, especially lps corals, but also sps corals too. You also may want to consider only using 3 250s, the general rule is one per every 2ft of tank length.

 

I would have just ran 3, except my tank has a brace right in the middle. It's about 2" thick plastic with a 4" wide piece of glass on each side. This makes my tank bright on the ends and a much darker spot in the middle.

I figure as long as I acclimate my corals to the light they shouldn't bleach out. I also will have the ability to house anything in this tank. I already have 3 clams in my 75 and I have 2 ICECAP 250watt de on that tank.

 

I have a 135 and I run 4 250W MH with 14K Pheonix bulbs and total of 8 actenics (4 on each side of the tank) and 18 small LED blue lights. I really did notice a difference with the pheonix bulbs and would recommend that.

As far as overkill...I would not think so (obviously as that is what I have :} ) My LPS grow like weed, my SPS grow a tad bit slower I guess but I have not really noticed it all that much. Things like my sunset monti and my superman monti is slow but the superman has taken off recently. I do place some corals lower to have them spead up more.

Just one note of reminder....the light is more then most corals are exposed to...so make sure you place all corals on the bottom and cut the time off a bit when you first get a coral. Also if you have corals in there now, make sure you cut the time the light is on to get the corals used to it. I left them on for only 2 hours for a week, then increased it by an hour or so every week until I got to the desired time. I also placed the coral on the bottom

 

That's not entirely true. Acclimating will help, but if there is just too much light, the corals will still bleach. Corals can only take X amount of light. I have bleach corals that I light acclimated. For example, I had a really nice Green Birdsnest. I started it low and slowly moved it up. I put it too high and under my 6x54w T5s, it bleach in a few days. I moved it down and it started to recover. Now it looks pretty bad.

You are right in that you will be able to keep anything you want, but from my experience, that much light will cause colors to become washed out and faded looking. What you could do is try some lower par bulbs, such as XM 20,000 or 15,000K. I actually believe the XM 15,000K have the lowest par out there, at least concerning aquarium Mh. Also, you should be fine in the areas where the lights don't over lap, the ends of the tank, just watch what you put where they do overlap.

 

I guess I was just suprised at how white the USHIO 14k bulbs were, they are a new bulb called USHIO aqualite 14k.

I was originally going to purchase the xm15k. I don't realy have much more room for actinics and I think the 20k might be too blue. I almost want to try keeping the 14ks in the 2 center pendants and putting some 20k 's in the 2 outer ends and see if that balances the color out.

Nice Pug.

Here are mine

 

too cute! Both my pugs were fawns but I love the black one. I currently volunteer at times to drive rescued pugs on a roadtrip to their new owners, going across state etc. I love pugs!

That pug in my avatar was my rescue pug that I had to put down a few years ago. I had another pug that I just had to put to sleep a month or so ago so it is still very hard

Anyway the light idea you listed is a great plan...I actually did that with my lights for a bit. It was kind of like the rising of the sun. I had the cooler bulb on the left, they came on earlier in the day and then the whiter bulbs on the right which came on when the others where going off. But how you are going to do it will probably buffer that out quite a bit!

Post pics of the tank when you get a chance

 

Pugs are amazing companion dogs. My Mother-in-Law has a 3yr old fawn. My sister-in_law had 2 fawns but one is gone. My Mom and Dad also have a fawn pug so we obvioulsy love the breed.

We just gor a boxer puppy 9mo old now and that breed is really cool. They all get along so good.

Here is the link to my build

http://www.3reef.com/forums/show-off-your-fish-tanks/125-drilled-tank-setup-65450.html

 

lol, you guys know we totally hijacked this thread!

here is my gang, unfortunately muggsy (the black one) had to be put down about 6 months ago due to an inoperable tumor



now back to our regularly scheduled program

 

It's cool this was my thread anyways