Litghting 130"L x 48"W x 30"T tank

[Rhinoman]

What are thoughts on lighting for a 130"L x 48"W x 30T"? I will be running CO2. It'll be a South American Biotope aquarium. A flooded forest type environment. Originally I wanted to do an Amazonian Biotope but my wife loves Blue Rams and then there's Otto's and hey the Amazon is huge and the research to pick an area to emulate....so I'm going to just concentrate on South American fish and not get too picky.

[fshfanatic]

That big, Metal Halides.

[jasonh]

Originally Posted by fshfanatic

That big, Metal Halides.

I'd hate to see that bill...if they only cover a 2ft area, that'd be 10-12 for that tank...yikes.

[Canoe2Can]

About 800 gallons by my reckoning. I'd say 3 x 1000 Watt MHs or 6 x 400 Watt. Either one would give you better than 3 WPG or 50 W/sq. ft. Should be plenty of light to grow anything. Just hang the halides higher so they'll cover more ground. I personally think it's just a myth that a halide can only light 4 sq. feet.

Sounds like an awesome project.

[attack11]

halides do more than a 2' area. where do these silly ideas come from? it depends on the reflector you use. that's it. you might be able to get away with 6 x 250w bulbs with lumenarc3 reflectors. a 400w bulb would give you more par but that electricity bill would be scary.

[attack11]

a t5 array would be as good, minus the point light shadowing. it'd run cooler and be cheaper electrically; but the setup cost is almost the same.

[DiabloCanine]

A tank that size can have different biotopes with high light and low light areas which can accomodate a multitude of flora and fauna. Different types of lighting can be combined very easily with those dimensions. To some degree you can even have different temperature zones. Would be fun to engineer that project, a trip down the Amazon through the mountains and the lowlands......DC

[plantbrain]

We used 4x1000w, but this tank is a tad shorter and shallow.

30" is a nice depth. More typically means access issues, but the depth vertically is very nice in many respects.

I'd go 400w x 5 maybe 6

I measured 220 at the farthest reaches on the bottom up to 880 umol PAR in the behemoth (see other thread) we just did with the 4x 1000.

They are about 18" above the tank surface.
This allows you to get in/out easy.
But also better spread front to back.

Using these, do not be too scared to have them higher.
400w offers more bulb color options, electronic ballast(MH ballast are loud!!!, E ballast are not).

Regards,
Tom Barr

[attack11]

you mean magnetic coil ballast, not mh. a good electronic will drive all types of bulbs. xm have great bulbs but you gotta go with a compatible ballast.

[Canoe2Can]

I don't even know if this would be an option, but the mention of T5s did get me thinking. They make 5 foot, 80 Watt T5s, right? And this is an 11 foot tank. Maybe two fixtures, each housing 8 80 Watt T5s. That might be a way to light that size tank with less energy and heat created. Just a thought.

Diablo Canine is right. With a tank that size, you wouldn't need high light all over, and it would probably add an extra dimension of interest if you didn't.

[Rhinoman]

It's about 660 gal actually. With 4" of substrate the depth is really 26". I was thinking 6 x 96 CF or 9 x 96w CF. There's a calculator somewhere that compares tank sizes to known Amano set-ups. Using it I only need a little over 400w, but that seems too low. I've thought of using a couple 2x250w MH (1@2' and 1@4')+ 4 x 96w CF for the first 6 feet of the tank than just three more 96w CF's (centered lengthwise) for the last five feet =1100w. If I've noticed one thing about my current 180 gal tank with 400w CF on it it's that the Tetra's don't school when all the lights are on. When the two 9w lights are on (for a couple hours a night) though, they school. What's all that light above the 10'er going to do to the fish?
One thing for sure 400w MH's are out of the question I think that's just too bright for this tank and there's no way I'm going to hang them high up just wasting electricity and therefore money.

[LS6 Tommy]

Originally Posted by Canoe2Can

I personally think it's just a myth that a halide can only light 4 sq. feet.

Definitely a myth. You may lose some intensity by having them higher up off the tank, but look at it this way- we just finished installing new 150w MH fixtures in one of our gyms. The gym pretty much has the same lumens as daylight. Granted, it's not as intense as an aquarium needs, but they're covering 30'x30' very nicely from 20" up. If you're using 150w for a 5'x5' area, it's going to be 6 times more intense.

Tommy

[Rhinoman]

I'm thinking 5 x 250w 10,000k MH will do the trick. 1 @ 1.5', 3.5', 5.5', 7.5" and 9.5'. Elec (8.3 cent per KW) $1.03/day= $31/month.

[Fishysan]

What bulb are you looking at Rhino?

I'm trying to figure out how to light my 330g myself with MHs. For a planted (w discus & tetra/rasboras) I was hoping to get away with 3 x 175w 6500K bulbs, etc. but now I'm wondering if it's not enough light.

I have 3 250w HQI ballasts that I ran over my reef and can put 3 10000K XM mogul single ended bulbs on and be slightly overdriven.

I was worried about the 10000Ks being too white/blue & washing things out. The coloration of plants/fish in FW is quite different.

Tnx,