planning 180 full reef

[dug5921]

i am in the (very) early planning stages of a larger reef (wife wants fish-only for her lions, i want peaceful/full blown). i'm thinking 72x24x24 180gal. my questions are:

would 6-96watt pc give me enough light for sps?
i'm thinking 4-10k, 2-actinic
(summertime gets pretty hot, i have no a/c, and don't want to think about a $700 chiller, so i think MH is out of the question)

how many times per hour do i want to circulate the water? is 5xhour enough??

thanks in advance.

(now i just have to find a way to come up w/ $5k...any ideas??

)

 

[newreefman1]

Pcs generally are not intense enough IMO to sustain most of the SPS out there. If you can add one or two smaller MH like 175 or 250 rather than 400's, with 2 fans, the heat shouldnt get unbearable. The pcs are great but the bottom half of your 180 is going to be dim and the only place youll be able to place high light corals will be totally at the tip top of your tank.
I suggest adding maybe 1 250 in the middle and the rest pcs. Did you think about VHOS though?
They are cheap, long(length), great output 110 -140 watts and I have seen SPS grown under them with great ease.
This obviously is a largly talked about topic(lighting) but VHO would be a cost friendly lighting for what you want to do. maybe 4x 140 . Pop 1 175 or 250 mh in there and you got a SUPERB setup lighting wise.

Hope this helps some
jason

 

[jaydse]

I got a 180 full reef 450+ lbs. of live rock over 40 corals 30 fish I use 6 160 watts. vho's 2 fans from walmart water never got over 80deg.
my 90 houses my 13in. lion fish raised him from a pup

he like your wifes is one of my favorate fish .