Is lighting enough - Is lighting enough

B

butchseaman

[I have a 90gal tank that I am using (1) 20K 175 Watt XM Metal Halide Bulb and (1) 14K 175 Watt Hamilton Metal Halide Bulb. My question is will this be suffcient for LR and soft corals or will I need to add some fluorescent lamps. Any information would be appreciated.]



Edited By butchseaman on 1108183487
 
[That will definately be enough light for keeping soft corals...you could also keep lps, sps, and clams. If you are happy with the color, no additional bulbs (vho/pc/t5) would be needed as an actinic supplement.]
 
[While I think everybody will agree that the lighting you have describe is more than sufficeint please remeber that water quality is more important then lighting when it comes to keeping a healthy reef.]
 
[With water health in mind I did some mesaurements today to see what my tank was tunning over, and here is what I come up with.

My pumps runs 5gal through in approx 1 minute. That gives me 300 gph. Dividing that with my calulated water capacity which is 79.17 in a 90 gallon tank gives me a turn over of 3.75 per hour. I this suffcient?

I have been reading that I need a 6-10 turn over per hour. It seems as though that is going to make for some pretty strong currents. Please advise....... :sniffle:]
 
[I think for some softies having that much flow might be OK. However it is on the low side. You might consider adding some powerheads (MJ1200 are good) or a Closed Loop (Check marc's site for more info) to add additional flow without running it all through your sump.

6-10x is usually considered a minimal amount of turnover. SPS keepers often run 30-40x turnover or more. For reference my 29G mixed reef has about 35x turnover. The fish and corals love it.]
 
[I negleted to say that I do have (2) 1200 Maxijet powerheads in the tanks as well. I was mainly considering what goes through the sump.

Is it safe to say that with the added powerheads adding an additional 295gph each that gives a 3.6 turnover per hour each.

My questions then is, can the combined turn over of the powerheads be considered in the total turnover rate even though the turnover the powerheads is not going through the sump.]



Edited By butchseaman on 1108251199
 
[The flow through your sump should be 3x to 5x the display tank's volume.

When figuring out the display tank's turnover, add everything up: Return water, Powerheads, and Skimmer Output (if a HOB unit) and divide it by the display size.]
 
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