Help Me design New Lighting system

I just purchased my first home and it has a finished basemnet with a large rec room that will be my new pool table room. I am planning on cutting a hole in the wall in-between this rec room and the laundry room to build a in-wall 75g reef.

The ceilings aren't too tall in the basement only 6'8" floor to ceiling. So I need to figure out how much room above the tank will be required for lighting as I want the tank and high as possible.

I want to run 2 - 250w SE halides w/14K bulbs and 2-54w T5 actinic or blue+ bulbs. I figure the bulbs need to be about 6 inches off the water and want to mount the bulbs and reflectors to a rack that I can raise and lower. I figure 18" should be enough room above the tank what do you think?

Second part is the lighting equipment itself. I have never run halides before only T5s so I'm familiar with those. What kind of reflectors for the halides are best, there are a lot of choices. Is one halide ballast better than another. Is a UV glass sheild required for SE bulbs? I'm going to be using sunlight Supply Tek 2x54w T5 retro kit for the actinics

 

I would recommend 9-12 in over the water or you will have heat issues. Also single ended bulbs do not need U.V. shields, only double ended need a U.V. shield. As far as ballasts go, I use Lumatek dimmable ballasts. (Can run 250-400w). The most popular ones seem to be Galaxy, Lumatek, Icecap. Everyone will have their own opinions. The hard part for me was choosing the color temp. 10k, 14k, 20k. (that is how much blue is in the lamps) I chose 14k cause I wanted to start in the middle. I chose Ushios. A little whiter than I thought, but I really like them. I run 2 48" T-5's One Purple and one blue actinic. Ask Dingo if you need any more help. He is very helpful.

 

With the bulbs being that high off the water wont the PAR be decreased and a lot of spill over?

Also, are HQI better than SE bulbs?

 

Where would it spill to if it is in the wall?? Also a couple of inches is not going to change your Par enough to notice. SE are a little clearer and brighter, but it is all just personal preference. On a 75g tank either one will provide PLENTY of light. You will need good ventilation, or a chiller if it is enclosed.

 

Par is not reduced as it travels through air... At least not in such a short distance. However once it hits the water it starts being reduced pretty fast.
I would recommend using two 250w halides with lumenmax or lumenbrite reflectors. They are the best because they direct the photons in a more lamiar manner into your tank (thus par stays higher at deeper depths).
You can keep the reflectors in a canopy to diffuse any lost light but the reflectors do a really good job at directing almost all light downwards.
As far as bulbs... You have many choices so what exactly are you looking for out of them?

 

And about the hqi question... It doesn't really matter. The hqi put out more UV light and a more concentrated beam. The se bulbs put out the same light, just in a larger area. I like se for wide tanks an hqi for narrow tanks

 

As far as contolling spill over I was just concerned with keeping as much light in the tank as possible, you know not wasting it. I may be able to use the Lumenbrite Mini reflectors as the front face of the aquarium will be flush with the wall and the wall studs behind it so that will eat into my space. With the tank only being 18 inches deep 4 inches are gone because of dry wall and studs. Thats only 14 inches of space over the tank and the Lumenbrite mini reflectors are 16x16. Then I'm not going to have any room to put the T5s in front and behind the halides.

I'm just trying to figure out how to cram all this in there.

 

Sounds like you have a decent plan in mind.
The first thing you need to do is figure out what reflectors you plan to use with the MH's, you need to account for their height in determining the head room you need above the tank. My lights are 14" over my tank and I have no problem keeping the temp at 79 under my 400w MH.

 

Found that glass cages makes a 95 gallon in a 4' wide by 2' deep and only 17" tall.

Did a little mock-up, what do you think?

Lumenbright mini reflectors for the halides and 2x54w T5 actinics. Will put the light rack on a pulley to raise and lower as needed.

 

I like, those are workable tank dimensions for sure