What corals can I support?

Hello Everyone!

First post here on 3reef but I have been lurking around for a quite a while.

I'm setting up a 240g mixed reef tank, 72x24x33. I purchased a sump system from lifereef that finally arrived just recently.

I'm looking at purchasing my lighting and I don't want to break the bank for lighting so I'm looking at getting 2 of the 4x39w T5HO 36' fixtures from Odyssea. I know they are cheap models but at well over have the price of a name brand I will make them work for a while.

I am planning on having a lot of flow, 2 of the Koralia evo 1050 gph, and my sump has a Blueline 70 which is rated at 1750 gph.

So what I want to know is, what corals can I keep with this type of lighting?

I am worried that I'm going to have too much flow for low light corals like mushrooms, etc, but not enough light for SPS or LPS.

Any help would be amazing.

Thanks in advance!

 

For 33" you need 400W MH. T5 alone won't get much done. And I'd say you need a lot more flow. 35X over...

 

I don't know if 4x T5 will do it for you at all, except at the shallowest (top half) parts of your tank.

 

You should be able to keep softies and lps and depending on how you scape you might be able to keep some sps up at the very top. If I were you though I would spend more on your lights. That is one thing you don't want to cut corners on or you will end up spending more money on something better in the end. Ati, tek and current are some good brands to check out.

 

Thanks for the quick replies!

35x flow seems like a ridiculous amount. So you are saying I need 8400gph of flow in the tank?

As for the lighting should I be looking at MH or T5 or a combo?

Any recommendations on fixtures some one could link for me?

Thanks

 

+1 McFarrow

You really should look at 2 8x39W T5HO to keep anything you want. You will only be able to place very low light loving coral on the sand with these fixtures. You will also want to use top of the line bulbs.

That rating is for 0 head you will want to find out the rating for 4 to 5 foot head on the return pump. You would want 4 Koralia 1400 for circulation to get you to good mixed reef flow.

 

If you are looking at keeping high light corals low then you will want 400W MH with T5HO supplementation. 35X flow is a good mid level rate for a deep tank like yours.

 

In a tank that size you will no doubt spend potentially thousands of dollars on corals, so why skimp on the lights? Just my opinion

 

+1 to everything above. Massive tank = massive startup $$ to get the right gear for your tank. If you get cheap stuff now, you're only going to have to re-buy the right stuff later. Might as well save your money and do it right the first time.

Fact.

 

For example in my reef (180 gallon) for flow i have 2xk4=2400 total plus a 2xmj1200 modded with the super flow mod 2100gph and a 2x tunze 6045 1200 gph for a total of 9000gph plus what ever my return is and i dont feel as if i have enough flow for a all sps tank....

For a tank like that you will need at least 3x250 watt mhs, i dont like doing 400watters bc of the heat....you could also do 4x250watt mh