new to halides, need help

My fiance and I have a 125g 5ft tank we have an aquatic life timed light with leds, 2 actinic bulbs, and 2 high sunlights built into it. along with that we have the basic light kit that came with the aquarium. we know its not enough lighting for what we want and would like to get metal halides. Unfortunately all the research we have been doing has just confused us more on what exactly we need. we have seen ballasts and so many other devices that it is overwhelming. we would like to start getting a few things such as maxima clams and other invertabrates that do require high amounts of light.

Our tank currently has a hundred pounds+ of live rock, a rose anemone, 2 percula clowns, yellow tang, hermit crabs, and various polyps, etc... nothing too fancy right now.

 

How tall is the tank?

 

its about 2 feet give or take a couple inches. we plan on building a canopy for the lighting as well. its just information overload with this halide stuff lol. we aren't looking to skimp on it but we don't want to get a bunch of gear we don't necessarily need either. any help would greatly be appreciated.

 

OK... 24 inches deep. You will want 250W halides for clams at that depth. That will allow you to keep clams at all levels of the tank. It will also allow you to have literally any coral that you want.

Generally, reflectors are designed to cover 2 square feet of tank. If you had a 4 foot or 6 foot tank, the number you would need is easily figured. Yours falls in between this recommendation. If you get 3 reflectors, you will have a ton of light is some areas where the light overlaps. If you only get 2, then you will have slight areas that are dimmer, mostly towards the top of the tank. The choice is yours, money is usually the deciding factor.

A halide system requires 3 things to function. A ballast, reflector, and a bulb. The ballast is of two designs. Electronic and Magnetic. The electronic is much quieter, and uses less electricity, but cost much more initially. The magnetic ballasts are heavy, usually hum, create lots of heat and use more electricity, but they are much cheaper, and some can run bulbs to better specifications. Hamilton magnetics and Lumatek digital electronic are my favorites.

Reflectors are not something to go cheap on. I did initially, and I regretted it. The better the reflector, the more light energy is reflected back in to the tank. This means your lights run more efficiently, so you can run your lights less during the day and reduce your operating costs. It will also mean you can grow light demanding corals and clams deeper in the tank. IceCap and Lumenbright are my two favorite reflectors.

enough for now... ask away if it gets too confusing

 

thanks, that really helped out. now we know what we need to get it started. we've been shopping around and didn't want to make one of those expensive mistakes. the info was very much appreciated.