Lighting quantity ? for the experienced folks

Please help, I am designing my hood layout and I currently have the following resources.

1- ICECAP660 ballast (so I can run up to 4 48" VHO's or T5's
2- M57 Metal Halide Ballasts made to run 175W bulbs
- a limited amount of space to stuff all this stuff into
- a 90 gallon reef to light

I want to keep SPS corals, softies, you name it. I do not want the lighting to be the limiting factor. Here is my plan, please let me know what you think:

I want to run the following:



Where the green squares are two Reef Optix 1 Plus 175W Metal Halide pendant housings with glass lenses and housing Ushio 14K bulbs. The Purple lines are ICECAP SLR 48" Reflectors housing one Giesemann Actinic T5 bulb each which will be run by the ICECAP660.

The question is whether this will be ENOUGH light for most SPS. I have the option of trying to squeeze another two T5 tubes in there somewhere but space is TIGHT. (the 660 can drive two more bulbs).

The drawing above is dimensionally accurate (the overall hood is 49"x19", the squares in the corners are structural 2x4's, and the green/purple shapes are sized accurately.

I was hoping to squeeze two more T5s to the outside of these ones, even if they need to be 36" ones, but then they will be over the rim of the tank doing little if anything.

Please let me know your thoughts!

 

Should be plenty of light. If you really wanted to double up the actinic T5's. Maybe ditch the 2X4's (overkill, you don't need that kind of lumber for a hood) or maybe consider running smaller reflectors to make up the room?
EDIT: Also make sure you leave some room for some fans in there!

 

The hood has two 100CFM fans mounted on the back and the halide pendants are mounted so that the glass is flush with the top of the hood, so they stick out the top for cooling, air comes in through the back of the hood and out through the top of the halides... at least that is the theory...

Smaller reflectors are an option... I do have some custom deals kicking around. Is there any sort of reference for lumens required to make SPS happy? It looks like this setup should crank out about 25000 lumens with 458W of lighting. I am hoping that is enough to make these darn little inverts happy! (more lights = more damage to the electrical bill!)

Thanks for the input Packleader! Any other data points out there?

 

I don't disagree with Pack. That should be plenty of light, but I'd prefer to have the ability to have another 2 T5s in there should I want. If I understand what you say, even if you replaced the 2x4s with 1x2s, there still exists the issue that the reflectors for the outward-most T5s will be on the border, or outside your tank doing as you say, nothing.

If you already own the halide reflectors, then there's little you could do, I guess. You could always DIY two T5 bulbs under one reflector, and while that would afford you more light than one bulb/reflector--you're still cheating yourself, not utilizing the property that T5 reflectors supposedly increase the bulb's light by 300%.

If on the other hand you don't yet have the halide reflectors, look around, for ones that are 2" smaller on the short dimension. In this way, you'd be able to properly place 2 T5 reflectors in the build, side by side, in proper fashion and have the best of all worlds. If you're able, you might want to consider using tin snips to get the halide reflectors (if you already own them) down to size to allow for 2 T5 reflectors on either side of the retrofit to accomplish this.

I don't know your scenario (what you already have, etc.) but for a 90 gallon tank, while 2x175 would probably be just fine, 2x250 would be better, IMO. You state you don't want to be limited by lighting. Two 175's won't exactly limit you, but you might have to place any future SPS relatively high in the tank. With 250s, you'd have more lattitude (no pun intended) for coral placement with less concern about well-lit areas.

Good luck. Looks like you've planned well.

 

Thanks Sparky!

I have not purchased the halide pendants yet (which were goint to be installed into the wooden hood), but the ballasts that I have can only drive 175W bulbs and I have been hard pressed to find a mogul based pendant with a smaller short dimension. I considered just making a box myself and putting in retrofit kits, which would allow me to squeeze the reflector in somewhat, so that is an option.
I hear you regarding the T5's, if I can run 4, I should give it a shot. I can probably squeeze their reflectors somewhat as well, maybe get them from 2.5" wide down to 2" each.
I am going to check out the layout and see how much I would have to pinch the halide reflectors to fit it all...

I've HAD to plan, it is torture, I dont get most of the filtration for another 1.5 WEEKS so I am left with nothing to DO but plan!!! Ouch, my patience hurts!

 

The torture of planning far pales in comparison to the hell you'll experience had you not planned.

 

I do believe you are right my friend! It is good advise I am trying to track down a low-profile smaller footprint retrofit kit now... not having much luck...

 

I was going to post yesterday in addition to Sparky's post but now that I reread it hit covered most of what I was going to say. 175w will work no doubt but if you want SPS top to bottom and super light loving ones without any question I would opt with the 250s...

Also when you say Giesemann Actinic do you mean the TRUE actinic the violet lamp or Actinic+ the BLUE lamp? It makes a difference the True actinic will put out very little PAR as compared to the Actinic+....

 

I was thinking of going with the TRUE actinic, but I really like the Actinic + color.

What is the deal there, is true actinic just better for bringing out flourescence and Actinic + is better all-around as it shows flourescence in corals and also has high PAR levels?

 

True actinic will help fluorescence better, esp in greens and things like that. Many true actinics like UVLs Super actinic do not have much PAR output but have GREAT PUR(photosynthetically USUABLE radiation) output.

The Actinic+/Blue+ are BLUE lamps that put out really good PAR numbers as well.. I noticed if I run only Actinic+ lamps it really brings out Oranges especially