How's my lighting? (8X65W)

I am running 520 watts of PC's over a 60" long X 20" deep tank.

I figure on a scale from one to ten, this would be about a seven, maybe an eight in light intensity. Would anyone else agree?

I will be going to T5's in the future, but as I research the lighting requirements of various corals, I keep wondering where this set of lights stand. Any thoughts?
THNX

 

How many gallons?

 

Sounds to me like you have about anywhere from 90 to 110 gallons. So by the book, you would be looking at 5W per gallon which is right on. For a fish only tank, no problem. However, and this is a big however, your ability to house corals and anenomes are going to be extremely limited. You have a 20" deep tank and PCs can really only get to 12 inches down tops with any effectiveness. You can keep softies and some LPS, but no SPS. Also, your choices of anenomes is one (in my range of knowledge) and that is a condy. And even then you may lose it. You can see what kind of corals live under my lighting. I have a 90g 24" deep tank with 350W of PCs. My corals are, for the most part, in the top half of my tank.

Peace.......John.

 

+1. I didnt even see that they were PC's, I thought that they were the T5's already.
On a scale of 1-10, maybe a 4 or 5 in terms of reef lighting? IDK, I have 6 watts per gallon of both T5's and MH over an 18" tall tank and would only consider it moderate lighting, though I could probably keep anything light-wise.

 

Yup PL, my the first number that popped into my head was 4 as well.

 

Okay, I was thinking it might be higher, but that might be wishful thinking. I don't expect to try anenomes, or clams, under these lights. I do have some monti cap in the upper half and it is growing nicely. I'll have to push to get those t5's sooner!

 

i would keep the corals in the top half of the tank from hearsay i heard cp's have horrible penetration compared to t5's and halide's

 

My tanks is 26 deep my PCs do just fine

 

Well, water quality certainly helps. I actually noticed better penetration once I started running carbon.

 

I have to admit, I do have a large pagoda cup that is thriving on the sandbed. I do feed it weekly though. I just don't think the PCs have enough Umph to get down there all that well.