Halides vs T5s in a 37" tall tank

M

MikeC

New guy to the board here. Been reading awhile but recently joined. I have a 58g mixed reef with a 175 halide and 2 T5's. My employer is installing a 185g (48x24x37.5) in his new office waiting room. I read alot but have no direct experience with large tanks.

My question for now is would an 8 lamp T5 fixture on a tank this tall be enough for softies/sps/clams? If halide needed what wattage would you recommend?
 
37.5 is deep and it probably depends on the type of corals you would want to keep.

I would go 250w MH for LPS, Softies, and SPS at the top, but if you want a full SPS/Clam system I recommend 400W MH.
 
I definately agree with Blide here. As much as I adore T-5s I don't think they could pass on the intensity through so much water. There really hasn't been any conclusive testing on T-5s and how they vary through so much water.

It's still a 'newer' area. MHs are definate and proven already.
 
I agree with the two posts above. Metal halides will get you the water penetration you really need for a tank that tall.
 
Thanks for the feedback guys. I was worried about the heat with the halides. Found out the ceiling is going to be suspended tile so no worries. Will be able to vent all the heat directly up into the space above the ceiling tiles.
 
Sounds like a good plan. There will be quite a bit of heat I'm sure. I would consider getting a pendant to hang from the ceiling, and having an open top.
 
I am going to offer up an alternative opinion.

I think that T5s will be just fine, with possible exception of the clams. The reason is that you do not need your high par light to penetrate all the way to the bottom of the tank. So, minus the clam, your softies will do great in the bottom half of the tank and the sps will thrive in the top half.

Now, for clams, they come in two varieties - sand and rock living clams. Rock clams will do fine as you can put them up somewhere higher in the tank. Sand clams likely may not be quite as happy as they may not get enough light. However, the sand clams typically require less light. Sand clams include T. derasa, T. squamosa, and T. gigas. Rock clams include T. maxima and T. crocea.

ORA's page on clams is pretty good.
http://www.orafarm.com/clams.html

....As is the Wet Web Media page as well.
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/cav1i3/Clam_care/Clam_care.htm

So I'd say you could really choose either option. I think the Metal Halides will do fine. However, I think you should know that you DO have an option.
 
I was thinking today and you might check out the pillar creation methods I used in a tank of mine. Here are some pics....

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Here is the skeleton of my pillar.

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Here are my rocks.

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Here are some pics partially through the process.

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And here is the final product. Sorry, this is before I added a background on the tank.

And lastly, here are some links to a thread over on Reef Central of a guy's tank where he did a bunch of these pillars in a 600g reef. I got the idea from him.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=665314&postid=7806819#post7806819

I hope some of this is helpful. If not, feel free to ignore it... :D
 
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