155 Gallon Pre-planning

[Fitzy]

So i picked up myself a 155 bowfrunt a few months ago. Its been sitting in my parents garage, and im getting ready to start work on it. I am going to be building my own stand, canopy, lighting, fuge,.... well u get the point.

I figgured i'd start with the light layout. Im hoping i can get some opinions. Sorry for the crude picture... but all i got is MS paint (oh joy).

Black outline is the tank, red vertical lines are the supports on the top of the tank. Yellow is MH light, thinking of 250 W for all three. The other two are two 34" (96W) sets of PC lighting, blue atinic, gray 6500K. There will be two sets of these, one in front, one in back. Basicly on either side of the MH.

So, if my calcs are right.... that would make ~1134 Wats~7 WPG.

Tank dementions are 72x24x24

Thanks in advance!!

Oh yea!! and im looking at www.hellolights.com for all my lights. anyone have any other suggestions??

 

[Jill & Brian]

If you haven't bought the lights, you may want to consider using t-5 instead of pc for the atinics. They will take up a lot less room, and have more light output as long as you use individual reflectors. The bulbs should also last at least twice that of PC

With the 250 MH as the main light you should be in good shape. Good reflectors make a big difference here too.

-Brian

 

[Fitzy]

I was thinkin about using one reflector, for the whole canopy. Should i go to individual ones? Are 250's to much?

 

[ioreefer45]

I have a 155 bow myself, but I went with a Maristar 72" fixture. It's 3 x 250MH on reef optix III reflectors + 4 x 36" T5. Too much work for me in building a canopy and plus you have to add powerful fans to keep it cool. T5's are definitely a lot smaller and if you want the VHO actinic effect, make sure you go with URI Super Actinics. They make your corals pop.

-Alex