Halide spacing views.

[Flatlander]

I am setting up another 180, standard size. There will be no hood, but there will be glass covers,{ I have a dislike for jumping fish, uv exposure & evaporation }.

I am going to run only a pair of vertical pendants with 400 watt 10K bulbs,{ "X" bulbs to be exact }. I understand there will be a bit of darker sections, but I figure if they are high enough, I should have good coverage.

I used these particular verticals before and covered a 3ft by 2ft tank with a 250 Iwasaki. They are a commercial style pendant. I likely would use horizontals, if I could find another one for a decent price. I have one Icecap now. I do find the horizontal model to have more residual room light than the vertical.

AJ, I remember you were planning on just 2 on your new tank. Still going that route?

[ajx22]

Hey Doug...

Bulbs arrive here tomorrow afternoon - will ship out tomorrow as well.

As for my tank...here are the plans as such:

x3 250Watt MH's - to cover 6' of the 8' - still giving me a few lower-light sections of the tank for the non-light-loving corals

x2 (or maybe x4) 72" URI Super Actinic 03's - will have to judge this once the hood is done based on the tanks appearance. Using IceCap 660's - will also add an IceCap dimmer to be able to simulate Dusk/Dawn effects.

x1 Moon light from AB

40Gal Refugium is lit 24/7 via x2 24" NO's (one is an actinic and one is a 50/50 - will play around with this to find the best solution)

That's it for now...:D

[Flatlander]

Guess I am going another route. Have decided to use a 6 ft. pan reflector & run 3- 175 watt German 10K bulbs instead.

I have seen some tanks going back to this route instead of the higher intensity bulbs, like my 400,s. They have very good growth still, but most of all, their corals have very nice colours. As nice as vho only lit tanks or the tanks now lit with 20K Radiums.

I have lots of sps, but no light demanding acros. My 170 will remain the home for my pair of clowns, their bubble coral & a bubble tip anemone, {tank bred of course}, that I have found. They will be the only residents in there. It will now be lit by a bank of normal outputs.