[heady2010]

Hi, in my tank i am planning to have 2 aqua ray reef blues at the front, followed by a powerglo t8, then a marine glo t8, finally 2 aqua ray marine white at the back. This will be for fish, inverts,softs and lps, with maybe sps in future placed nearer the top of tank. Does this seem a ok setup? suggestions welcomed. thanks

[chriss]

It's not really enough for sps, barely lps. I would ditch the led and t8 and go for t5's. Two whites and one blue to get you going.

Chris

[heady2010]

ok thanks, the thing is im pretty restricted by my hood, what if i went i could have 2 t5s and 4 aqua rays? would that cover it?

[Marcus Watts]

Hi,
I ran 9 aquarays and 3 aquabeam tiles on mine and the sps did survive but not grow, thrive or hold & maintain colour at all. Most lps were ok but some wasted away (lobophilias mostly).
If you want a complete mixture of species including a few sps I'd say you need to work out every available mm of space in the hood and work on getting as many T5s as you can in there. Maybe keep a little space at the front for 2 blue aquarays but a navura ?? blue T5 tube will be as practically as good for colour enhancing

cheers Marcus

[heady2010]

ok thanks, forgot to mention the tank is only 200 litre, aprox 18 inches deep.

[Marcus Watts]

heady2010, on Jul 28 2010, 07:05 PM, said:

ok thanks, forgot to mention the tank is only 200 litre, aprox 18 inches deep.

Hi,
The rays still dont have the power for the corals though, I have 18" of water from the top of the sand to the surface and even with sps 4" below the surface the light energy wasn't there in great enough amounts. Liter-age doesn't make any difference to lighting, look for even coverage and enough power to reach the deepest areas you want to place corals.

Marcus

[dylan]

yeh get as many t5 bulbs in there as possible with reflectors giesmann . ati , jbl would be good choices , i would go for giesmann x2 actinic + and x2 actininc blue

[Marcus Watts]

nice mix dylan, and as you say, the quality of the reflector will make the bulb so much more efficient. If one all blue aquaray was squeezed in at the front for evening / moonlight some lovely colour will show through

[heady2010]

is it possible to get halide lighting by mounting it on the hood of the tank, as suspending or wall mounting is not an option, it would be nice to have all t5s but it will be hard to fit them and also it will get rather expenisive changing bulbs all the time. cheers