Need Help with Lighting for 90 gallon

Hi all . Fairly new to the hobby , but already addicted. I have a 28 gallon hqi right now , but found a deal on a 90 gallon with starphire for a sick price. I am needing input on lighting for this tank. I want to do a mixed reef with a possible focus on chalices in the long run. Mh is probably my direction. Any suggestions on weather I should go mogul or double ended? Extra PC or T5 supplementation?

 

My suggestion is for a 90 don't go metal halide. You'll probably end up with temperature problems and also it can be too powerful for softies close to the top of the tank. I say go 6 bulb t5 fixture, either tek or nova.

 

90 are deep so MH would work fine, but i would do at least a 6 bulb t5ho WITH slrs, i love t5s but for deeper tank such as a 90, the slrs are a MUST HAVE! if you cant afford a tek light 6 bulb then go with MH.

 

As far as cost goes the MHs could well be more because you might need a chiller. Corals grow very well throughout my whole 90 gallon tank with a 6 bulb nova t5

 

Unless you went with 400 Watters, then i doubt that you would need a chiller.

 

+1 i run 3x250 and 2x165watt vhos and my temps never go above 82

 

I ran dual 175's on my 50 gallon tank with no heat issues ever. Just fans. Ask Missionsix. he had 500 watts of mh over a 55 gallon and that isn't counting his actinic supplimentation. I've ran both and personally prefer mh over t5's on a deeper tank ANYDAY!!! Believe what you want but t'5 just don't have the penetrating power that MH does.

 

+1 THANK YOU i agree 10000000% on deeper tanks mh are def the better option plus as long as you have fans(i run to exhaust on my 180) you wont run into to much heat problems if any at all.

 

Hi Nater

welcome to 3 reef
I cant help with the specific advantages of mogul or double ended
hopefully one of the MH users will be able to advise if indeed there is any signifcant advantage to one over the other ( T5 user here presently and I admit I dont know)

I have used MH in the past (they where double ended I recall )

I do like to have a period of just actinics for 1st and then last hour of each day so if I had MH - then yes I would have additional T5s and have actinic lamps - so I could continue with my dawn/ dusk set up.

Steve

 

I personally prefer SE bulbs due to the fact that I like to run shieldless. DE bulbs need to have some sort of uv shield where they are built into SE bulbs. Also, I've found that se bulbs will offer a little bit wider of a coverage.