What Halides for 72"l x 36"w x 27"d?

[Zalick]

I'm looking to ditch my LEDs and go with halides on my 300dd. Last time I ran halides was 96-2002.

There aren't many options for reflectors these days.

What would you all recommend for reflectors and watts if I want about 150 par on the floor?

My tank is a peninsula.

Lots of conflicting posts about whether 250w is enough for these dimensions.

I will be flanking the fixtures with 4 mitras LX7.

I'm keeping my eye out for used and just picked up a lumenbright with galaxy selectable ballast. Haven't put it up.

I'm looking at cayman sun, cabo sun and then used Luminarc, lumenmax elite or lumenbright. The cozumel sun won't be in stock until March.

Thanks,!

[Breadman03]

2x 400 watt Cayman Sun would likely give you good coverage. I had one over a 150 Deep Dimension, which is just half the length of your tank and it gave me great coverage. I'd add in a strip LED or two for viewing light as well.

[Zalick]

Originally Posted by Breadman03

2x 400 watt Cayman Sun would likely give you good coverage. I had one over a 150 Deep Dimension, which is just half the length of your tank and it gave me great coverage. I'd add in a strip LED or two for viewing light as well.

Thanks. Do you think it matters DE v SE? It seems bulb selection is better with SE these days. But bRS has 400w DE Caymans on clearance for $50...

[Imaexpat2]

FWIW....On a 125 gallon tank I was running 2 x 400 watt Hamilton fixtures with Coralvue 14K bulbs with 2 x 160 watt VHO Actinics. I have no idea what the PAR was on that set up but it was a very productive mixed SPS/LPS tank until 2006 when I had to do a major move and break that tank down.

With your tank being twice as wide and 3 inches deeper...I would probably default to 3 x 400 watt halides with some LED light strips for additional lighting.

[Zalick]

Originally Posted by Imaexpat2

FWIW....On a 125 gallon tank I was running 2 x 400 watt Hamilton fixtures with Coralvue 14K bulbs with 2 x 160 watt VHO Actinics. I have no idea what the PAR was on that set up but it was a very productive mixed SPS/LPS tank until 2006 when I had to do a major move and break that tank down.

With your tank being twice as wide and 3 inches deeper...I would probably default to 3 x 400 watt halides with some LED light strips for additional lighting.

Thanks. I have 6 kessil a360 and 4 mitras LX7 for my led supplementation. 😁🤦

Were you running SE or DE? Back when I ran Halides I only used SE. Didn't really think about it. Just plug in and grew coral & clams like crazy.

[Imaexpat2]

I was using SE's. Thats what I liked about the halides...just plug them in once you have the bulb that gives you the look you want. Anything between 10k-20k seem to be the cats meow!

Whats wrong with the 6 Kessile 360's if you dont mind me asking as that would surely cover that size tank pretty well...

[Zalick]

Originally Posted by Imaexpat2

I was using SE's. Thats what I liked about the halides...just plug them in once you have the bulb that gives you the look you want. Anything between 10k-20k seem to be the cats meow!

Whats wrong with the 6 Kessile 360's if you dont mind me asking as that would surely cover that size tank pretty well...

I always used 10k. Pretty excited to try some 14k and maybe 20k ��

Surprisingly the 6 a360s aren't enough really. My experience is that I don't get the same par/intensity unless I have the led wattage similar to Halides. So the a360 is 90w and I needed to double them up in each quartile of the tank.. so I'd really need 8 to get what I want. That's why I got the 4 mitras LX7.

And now my kessils are about 6 years old and apparently nearing end of life. Rather than drop more money on LEDs, I'm going back to tried and true Halides. There isn't any savings in power given that I'm running 540w of kessil and
About 500w of mitras. ��. And heat isn't an issue for me.


I also found that my corals seemed happier under T5 or Halides than under the LEDs. My canary in the coal mine was a little GSP rock I put in to test the lights two years ago. It's struggled to grow. Once I pointed two kessil at it on 100%, it start growing. Under my Halides in the past they grew so fast I swore I'd never put that weed in my tank again.

I know lots of people love LEDs due to the controllability with the colors, and have success, but I've yet to see a long term LED tank that grew better than halide/T5. I don't like fiddling with lights, so it's back to Halides for me.

[Imaexpat2]

Okay, cool that sounds more than reasonable and I understand now. I was just kind of curious. I am planning a 90 due to space constrants and was seriously thinking about a couple of 360WE's and 4 x 54 watt T5HO's. Hence my curiosity...

Yeah I really liked the 14K look I got with the Coralvue 14k bulbs. I never really cared for the deep washed in blue look of 20k's and the PAR kinda sucked with them. The 10k's had great PAR but there wasnt enough blue to make the corals colors pop enough to satisfy my eye. Do look at your bulbs closely though. For example the 15k XM bulb has almost as weak a PAR rating as their 20k did! If you like the 10k look, the 10k XM was one of the best on the market and had some PAR numbers that were way superior to other 10k's, it was a very crisp white with a slight hint of blue to them. I just really preferred the 12-14k look....

[Zalick]

Originally Posted by Imaexpat2

Okay, cool that sounds more than reasonable and I understand now. I was just kind of curious. I am planning a 90 due to space constrants and was seriously thinking about a couple of 360WE's and 4 x 54 watt T5HO's. Hence my curiosity...

I think that would probably be great. Mine are the original a360s and I didn't think they penetrated as deep as I hoped. My LPS about 8" below surface loved them. I really debated adding T5s and had it all planned out but decided to just go with halides. Mostly because I didn't want to change 8 - 6ft bulbs. I love T5s.