I need advice for lighting on my 180 gal fish and coral tank

I have a 180 tank with live rock and fish but I want to take the jump into the world of corals. The types of coral i would like to keep are zoos shrooms brain frogspawn star plyps leather things along these lilnes. I have a ice cap 660 I want to run VHO bulbs as this is what I have the equiptment for. How many bulbs and what atintic combo would be the best.

 

could you please specify the dimensions of the tank?

 

Welcome to 3reef

You would need about 360 to 450 watts total. Buy UVL brand bulbs as they are designed to be overdriven which is what your ballast will do. If I remember right the ballast can work for 4 bulbs max. Wewill need the dimensions to give you a better recommendation. For actinic I would recommed getting the Super Actinic from UVL.

 

I run 4 T5's over my softie / LPS / anemone 180. all you would need is 4 pairs of endcaps / standoffs, 4 60" reflectors and 4 60" T5 lamps of your choosing. I'm going with all ATI lamps in this order from back to front.

Blue+
Purple+
Aquablue special
Blue+

if your starting fresh with just a ballast, might as well go with the more efficient T5's over the VHO's IMO.

~Will.

 

I have that same set of bulbs and order on my 75. Bulbs are 48" though. It is a nice 14000K color. Your reds, pinks and purple should really pop under those lights. Fluorescent pigments show great also.

 

the dimensions of the tank are 24hx 24wx 72h ....and I already have the end caps and ballast for the vho set up so im going with that...Thanks

 

So here is what Ive kinda decided on .....4 36" VHO bulbs.....I went with the VHO for now due to that is what I have the set up for.... what is the best brand and what type of actintic combo should i use.

 

There is basically only one brand left manufacturing VHO. Luckily... they are awesome. UVL

URI Fluorescent Light Bulbs

 

why not just two 6' bulbs instead of four 3' ones???

that ballast works awesome with T5's FYI, you just need to pick up some endcaps with your bulbs and reflectors and your good to go. the 660 ballast can push 16' feet of bulbs, making for an awesome 4 lamp 60" T5 setup, or two 72" VHO lamps. T5's are waaaay more efficient par / watt (much less heat also) wise and you have loads of color options. the VHO's are a lot older technology, but still will work (however inefficiently) and throw pretty good overall color.

I have used everything from PC's to VHO's, to halides, and T5's, even some LED's. no matter how many times I switch lighting setups around I seem to always drift back to T5's.

~Will.