2 Halides over 6 foot tank (or does it have to be 3?)

Hey guys,

Does anyone here run just two units over their 6 foot tanks. The tank is 6 feet long and 24" tall. I wanted to go with 250W Halides. The reflectors I'm looking at are 20"x20" and say they cover 3 square feet.

Will two be enough? Most 6 foot tanks I've seen have used 3 halides, but they have been retro kit reflectors ... these will be lumenarcs.

Just looking to get an idea. If two will work its good savings on bulbs lol

--Tyler

Also, I'm not worried about money to the point that I'd do it unless it was definitely sufficient. If there is huge benefit to 3 in comparison, please tell me.

 

You're much better off with 4 or even 5 250w metal halides, most people with 4 ft tanks (90g-75g's) have 4 250 metal halides so you are far.


EDIT: Sorry got confused with another thread, there is no 175w MH lol

 

I have a 6 foot long 125 gallon tank. Which I guessing is the same as yours. I would go with 3 250 watt halides. My 125 long is shown in my basement fish laboratory thread in my signature. Does it have supports along the top like mine does?

 

I think you are mixing up lighting types. Metal halides are designed to cover 2'x2', so, you would need 3. Most people with 4' tanks, have 2. There is a 175W MH. 2 on a 6' tank will have dim areas even with a good reflector.

 

I think 3 is plenty over a 6' tank. 4' usually have 2, i dont see the purpose of 4 over a tank that size, but thats just my opinion, get a few t5's for actinic and youll be good!

And there are 175W MH just sayin...

 

I ran 2 on my 125g. Get em spaced right and above the water enough and you get good spread. Get the light hungry corals under the lights, end the others spaced out. Can be done with no issues. ANd the use of 250w halides will definately help.

 

Yes it has the black plastic trim, but only 1 center brace on the top. It looks like you have two of them, I have just one right in the middle of the top of the brace

 

4 250 halides over a 4 foot tank! that seems like ridiculous excess to me. My last reef had a single 400w over it, but it was a 92 corner bowfront so I had good coverage.

The only reason I'm asking is my last tank was about 9 square feet (approx 36"x36") and I had a single halide above it and everything grew phenomenally. So if that light covered 3 feet wide, I thought I might get away with 2 lights over the course of 6 feet (the math just seemed logical in my head)

 

2 would be enough for some corals. I would not recommend SPS unless directly under the light. A very high quality reflector is needed to do a 6 foot tank with only 2 reflectors.

 

I don't have an issue going with 3 halides, just wanted to make sure I wasn't wasting my money.

Figured I would also save on the energy, plus one extra bulb every 6 to 8 months that didn't need to be replaced.

I'm from Canada, so typically we are stuck paying a lot more for our reef equipment than you lucky americans due to shipping alone.

And all of the awesome sponsors offering free shipping ... is always only to continental us.

I would love to go LED ... but just can't find a way to do it for an SPS dominant tank ... that isn't in the 5k range that will still offer the growth of halides.

LED's seem to be coming down in price, but don't compare to halides in terms of growth and pop, unless you add more units