Rare and Unusual topic: Lighting!!!

[Anonymous]

info first, questions at end of message:

Hi, I need some help on planning the lighting on my future tank. Here's my tank specs:

-92g corner glass aquarium w/ custom wood stand and canopy
-Lifereef 26g sump w/ LR 24" skimmer
-K2R or similar calcium reactor

Inhabitants will include several common percs, several jawfish, possibly several green chromis, several clams and various soft corals (no stony), 1 small wrasse for clam parasites, and 3 abalones for algae.

Taking into consideration the shape and dimensions of the tank 48x34x24 and the fact that my sand bed will be 6-8 inches for the jawfish, what would be an ideal lighting setup? (The tank might also have mirrored sides/backs) I will have a couple of fans on the hood but no chiller so I have to watch the temp. too.

I'm considering the following setup, but your opinions would be greatly appreciated. I plan to have a 400 watt 6500K Iwasaki in the front/center with 2 96w actinic PC's on the sides/backs. I like this setup because the Iwasaki bulbs are so cheap and having only one 400w Iwasaki bulb costs $60 vs. about $250 for a pair of 250w 14,000k lamp.

1) Would the 400 be too hot? Would one 400w MH create bad shadows or would the PC's reduce shadows enough?

2) I would like to use a Blue Line ballast so that I can change to a higher color temp later if I so choose. Any opinions on these ballasts? Also if a pair of 250s is worth the extra cost (if it's highly recommended) it would be nice to use one ballast to control both a 6500k Iwasaki and a 14,000k Belgium. Can this be done?

3) I'm very interested in doing whatever I can to optimize the rippling water effect of the halides. Would the single 400w be better for this than the 250w pair? I plan on using a Spider or Synthetic Sun reflector. Do these help or hurt this effect? What are the down sides of these reflectors?

4) How does the color rendition of using 6500k Iwasakis complemented with actinic blues compare to the higher Kelvin temps of the 12,000k and 14,000k lamps?

Thanks Much!

 

[Anonymous]

Hey, haven't seen one of these in quite awhile

Is the tank a triangular/wedge shape?

1) The single globe in the center will creat shadows, and the PCs will help to reduce this. But shadows are not necessarily bad. You can arrange the reef structure such that you can maximise your reef surface area to place your photosynthetic organisms. It will also allow you to have locations where the lighting is very different. So it really depends on what you want the tank to look like, constant brightness throughout, similar organisms through out, or variable brightness with very different zones available to place things.

2) No idea, don't have access to the stuff you guys do

3) For the rippling effect on the sand and substrate in the tank all you need is a point source of light and ripples on the surface. So with a single MH bulb you will get more dramatic rippling versus two.

4) I personally think that daylight with actinics look better than those around 10,000K mark. But that is my opinion. I have also not actually seen the bulbs you are talking about either, so may be someone that has will jump in.

Hope this is of some assistance.

 

[Anonymous]

If you look at the thread Iwasaki 6500 too green, there are others who prefer this bulb + actinics as opposed to a 10000k. Plus they say this bulb produces the best growth. I plan on getting some soon (god bless the united states tax return!