deep water, What lights?

I recently started my first reef tank and am still trying to learn as much as i can but im having a hard time picking a lighting sorce for my new tank. My biggest problem is my tank is deep it is a 130 gallon 48 x18x36 i know that this is a hard tank to light because of its deepth but i couldnt pass up the deal i got on it! I hope in time to be able to keep all kinds of coral and fish, i just put in 150 pounds or BRS eco rock, (love this rock stacked great) i tryed to make some nice areas to place coral at all dif. water deepths. Was hoping maybe some one had some expierence with tanks this deep and could help point me in the right direction

 

First off, some pictures of the tank would be sweet. for a tank that deep, LEDS would probably be a good option. Look into Eco techs radion LEDs.

 

That's pretty deep, not sure LEDs would do it. My bet would be on 400w MH's. I guess really it all depends on what you wanna keep, and where you wanna keep it in the tank.

 

Ive worked on a tank that deep before and the key is to create several lighting zones for difderent types of coral. You could use just about any type of light as long as you realize the hard corals will have to stay up top and soft corals on the bottom. Which light you pick will also depend on how high your rock work is built up. If it nearly reaches the top, you could run 250 watt halides or lesser powered leds, but if its lower in the tank, you will want 400 watt halides or high powered leds with tighter optics.

 

here is a pic of the tank thanks for the advise so far

 

Those rocks go up pretty high. I would think a couple radio s would let you have sps at top, Lps middle and just softies on the bottom.

 

in my experience led's penetrate better than any other light fixture. i highly suggest them for your tank. with some good led's out there you could probably be able to grow sps on your sand bed. but you wont want to do that. like someone said above try to create several zones. so it looks natural with sps up top, lps in middle and sandbed. then softies.

 

yeah, i second most of the above! I'd do a led system! and sepcialize it! Do more led's than a normal tank would need cause your prob gonna want 45 degree optics in the front to get light low, and maybe 60 degree optics in the back to prevent spotlighting!

 

any brands or setups you would suggest or is this going to be something i have to build myself

 

http://www.mrsaltwatertank.com/radion/

You can make storms with this beast.