MH 2 much 4 90 Gallon?????

I am downgrading my tank size from 125g to 90g reef tank.The tank is 48w x 18d x 24h. The Canopy is 8" off the tank. To prevent having to buy new lighting can i use my old lighting? My old tank used PFO 2 x 400 Watt Dual Metal Halide Ballast. Is that to much for a 90 gallon tank?

 

2x400 is excessive. I would do 2x250 max on there. You would need to raise the 400's pretty high off the water to not burn your inhabitants.

 

What lighting do you suggest i use? i would like to keep sps, lps, soft coral, and inverts like maxim clams.

 

2 250 watt halides with good reflectors.

 

2x250s would prolly be best to house anything you wanted...I did have 1 400w over my 90 for a while and it worked out pretty well except the REALLY low light areas on either side. If you ran 1 400w and maybe a couple t5s that would work.

 

I ran 2x250 of Mh with 2x 54w of ATI blue+ t5ho over my old 90g. It worked well, even with crappy MH reflectors.

2x400 is a bit excessive.
If you don't have a center brace, or a glass one, you could centrally mount 1 400w halide.

Or if you have a black center brace (more than likely), you could cut it out and then replace it with a glass brace and then use a 400w in the middle supplemented with the t5ho's.

I nearly ran only 1 x250 with t5ho on my 90g, but I ran across a pair of m58 ballasts for free.

 

Over my 90 I did have a brown center brace and it did cast a shadow in the middle thats kinda why I also suggested the t5s. I also wrapped the center brace in foil because it got pretty hot and I feared it failing and flooding my living room.

 

Would 48" T5 HO 6 x 54 be sufficient for soft, hard and clams? The link is below. 48'' Reef Aquarium Light T5 HO 6X 54 Lighting w bulbs! - eBay (item 280476000773 end time Mar-21-10 12:00:03 PDT)

 

I know a guy with a 120g with a 6x54 current nova extreme PRO on it and he has no issues with growing corals with it.

Now, as to the quality of that ebay link light, I have no clue. Usually the bulbs are pretty bad in ebay units. the there is the reflector quality which is unknown.

More than likely it will work fine, but the bulbs should be changed to better ones like ATI geiseman, KZ and such.

 

I have a single 400w over mine, no center brace.
the outside edges are a bit dark to me but that might just be the effect of the very bright light at the top center.