Lighting questions

I'm thinking about getting a 2x250 watt MH with 13,000k bulbs and I was wondering if this would be enough light for a 90 gal that is 25" tall and I was curious how this would look or if I would need to add some kind of Actinic bulbs for a good looking color, Or would I be better off going with a 260 watt PC fixture. As always thanks for any info you can give.

 

Definitely MHs over PCs for that depth of tank. What kind of corals are you going to keep and 400 watts of 6;500K would be better for SPS? I run 10,000K MHs with actinics as they porvide a crisp cleean look on my soft coral tank.

 

I havent realy made up my mind exactly what kind of corals im going to keep. The retro kit im looking at gives the option of 10k or 13k bulbs and I was thinking 13K is a little bluer and might look a little better without haveing to spend more money on some type of Actinic .Would the 10K be a better look or would I need some type of actinic light no matter what?

 

Wouldn't you want to use the Actinic's to turn on first and turn off last to imitate sunrise and sunset.

Thats more a question then a statement.

 

Yes BB47.

Actinic supplementation is generally required for corals.

 

Craig is there a ratio for actinic to other spectrum? Is 50/50 ok (I got 50/50 now).

 

Ok I think Ive made up my mind now , Im getting 2 x 175 watt MH with 13K bulbs and a 65 watt Actinic 03 . The 2 MH's will run for 10Hrs a day and the actinic 03 will run 11 1/2 Hrs a day, would this be enough light for a 25" tall tank ?

 

2 x 175 isn't a lot of a 90 especially since it's a deep tank. Also there are not as many good bulbs in the 175 watt size as the 250 watt. I'd go with 2 x 250. My 2 cents.

 

If I had it to do over again I would go with 250 or 400 watt MHs on my 80 gallon. 400 watts if I was going to have SPS corals.

 

The only reason I changed my mind from 2x250 to 2x175 was the heat issue , I just built a canopy for the tank and i have 2 fans built into it , Im just worried about it not beeing enough becouse if i mount the lamps to the roof of my canopy the bulbs will only be 8 or 9 inches from the water. Is 8 or 9 inches going to be far enough away from the water to use 250 ?