Need Your Advice on Lighting

Hi guys, I need your expertise on lighting a 180gal tank with a 72x18x31 dimension. For now, I only plan to keep a fish only tank with maybe a few Live Rocks. The thing is, I don't want to purchase the Metal Halides as of the moment 'cause I have a limited budget and I also don't want to upset my wife with our electric bill.;D

I plan on buying 3x 60" white tubes and 1x 60" actinic tube. Will this suffice the lighting requirement for my tank? I also am not very familiar with what kind of tubes to buy to simulate the required light for my tank.

I know that the best light for an aquarium would be the MH's, but for this tank, I would need at least 3 MH's. So please help me find the next best thing for my tank.

Would it also matter if the tanks dimension is 72x24x24? I know this tank is shallower by 7" than the other tank, although they have the same capacity.

Any suggestion will be highly appreciated.

Thanks a lot and more power to 3reef!

 

Hi there, I know that the mh are exspensive but if ur planning to keep any good corals and clams, you will need them. you can get one that is 72" 72" 1134W Metal Halide Aquarium Light New</IMG>
System Support: 3x250W HQI, 4x96W CF, 8xBluemoon LED from hombby on ebay for $589.00 and free shipping. consider the investment b/c later you will buy the mh and have spent double. i hope this helpped. LUNA

 

WOW! I never thought I would ever find a light fixture at this price. Usually they would cost twice that.

At least now I have an option, though it's still cheaper to buy those 4 tubes. But this one is totally on my list.

Thanks Luna.

 

hey, thats what friends are for!

 

If you plan on having just fish, metal halides are not necessary! Lighting is of little importance as far as symbiosis is concerned! Fish can get by with subdued lighting, such as T'5s, Power compacts or even regular fluorescent strip bulbs(40 watts).
If you do in fact decide to go with corals in the near future, you will need to decide now as to the types of corals you plan on keeping, solely as a means of not having to spend more money later to accomodate the more light intense loving corals later. It is a double edge sword as you could forfit money(less lighting) now as you would like to do, but will have to probably spend more money in the future to house corals.

 

I really planned on keeping just fish only on my tank for now(Being new to the hobby and all). I still have to make a lot of reading and researching to do, in order for me to properly care for corals and the like. And I read here somewhere that you don't really need MH's on your tank if you only want to keep fishes. I wasn't really sure 'bout that, 'til now, when you confirmed it Coral Reefer. This forum has a lot of threads, and its hard to keep track where you read what...hehehe.

Anyway, if I buy those tubes, what brand name is usually recommended, and what color combination should I choose? Will it be 2 actinic blues and 2 whites, or 3 whites and 1 blue tube? Please help me out.

Thanks a bunch.

 

I like Coralife bulbs!!
As for the kelvin of the bulbs(color Temperature and bulb color), it basically will depend on you and what you like! If you use just actinic bulbs you will display a deeper water environment and fluorescing will be more prevalent.
With a fish only tank I would probably go with either 50/50's or a mixture of 10000k and actinic bulbs!!!

 

Thanks Coral Reefer.