Great Lakes
Always do right, not popular...
OK Mr Crimson
I am going to go on record as saying that I think halides are just more trouble than they are worth. Lighting a reef tank is already an expensive proposition, and halides are over the top.
To anyone running halides, I understand the benefits. However, for many years successful systems were run without them.
Halide benefits are fewer lights, incredible illumination, and the lovely ripples.
Detriments. Placement, cost, heat, frequent replacement, and additional energy consumption. Yes, equal wattage regardless of type of bulb should have comparable energy use, but when switching to halides, people generally double or triple their wattage.
Crimson, I have a 90gal, I used to run four normal output 3ft flourescents for a total of 160 watts. Once I had gone through my cycles, I knew I had to upgrade. Most reasonable reefers will admit 4 watts per gallon is the minimum wattage for coraline algae growth, and to keep your corals happy.
So here is where the fun begins. In a DIY forum I learned to do this: I went to home Depot and got 5 electronic ballasts.
Four are designed to run four 4ft lights. One is a two 4ft light model. I wired up ONE ballast per light. Here is the beauty of it. Three of the ballasts are wired up to phillips 6500k bulbs that cost four bucks apiece! Another ballast hooked up to a 4ft blue actinic, and the final double ballast hooked up to a 3ft blue actinic. Then I wired in a double lamp fixture for two black lights(moonlight).
Flourescents are about 80-90 percent efficient run like this. So I figure I am running close to 500 watts, about 5.5 watts per gallon. Since I did this, my coraline algae has been taking off like wildfire. The more it growa, the faster it seems to grow. It's almost exponential.
So, I would think you need to be in the neighborhood of around 900-1000 watts. Your tank is double the size of mine( ) so this makes sense. I would venture that you need to fit six of those bad boy 160 watters in there, and you would discover happiness.
I am going to go on record as saying that I think halides are just more trouble than they are worth. Lighting a reef tank is already an expensive proposition, and halides are over the top.
To anyone running halides, I understand the benefits. However, for many years successful systems were run without them.
Halide benefits are fewer lights, incredible illumination, and the lovely ripples.
Detriments. Placement, cost, heat, frequent replacement, and additional energy consumption. Yes, equal wattage regardless of type of bulb should have comparable energy use, but when switching to halides, people generally double or triple their wattage.
Crimson, I have a 90gal, I used to run four normal output 3ft flourescents for a total of 160 watts. Once I had gone through my cycles, I knew I had to upgrade. Most reasonable reefers will admit 4 watts per gallon is the minimum wattage for coraline algae growth, and to keep your corals happy.
So here is where the fun begins. In a DIY forum I learned to do this: I went to home Depot and got 5 electronic ballasts.
Four are designed to run four 4ft lights. One is a two 4ft light model. I wired up ONE ballast per light. Here is the beauty of it. Three of the ballasts are wired up to phillips 6500k bulbs that cost four bucks apiece! Another ballast hooked up to a 4ft blue actinic, and the final double ballast hooked up to a 3ft blue actinic. Then I wired in a double lamp fixture for two black lights(moonlight).
Flourescents are about 80-90 percent efficient run like this. So I figure I am running close to 500 watts, about 5.5 watts per gallon. Since I did this, my coraline algae has been taking off like wildfire. The more it growa, the faster it seems to grow. It's almost exponential.
So, I would think you need to be in the neighborhood of around 900-1000 watts. Your tank is double the size of mine( ) so this makes sense. I would venture that you need to fit six of those bad boy 160 watters in there, and you would discover happiness.