Softy tank light.

[saltcreepette]

in my humble opinion that would be adequate (giving you about 3.36 watts per gallon). do half actinic and half 10K daylight.

[GaryP]

Ray,

Why not go with 4 X 48" 110 watt VHO? That will give you 440 watts. You can stagger the bulbs to give you coverage of the last 2', two on each side. I'm running 4 X 46.5" VHO (2 white/2 super actinic) on a 660 ballast in my 75 gal. softy tank and its more than enough. You can run it all off of one IceCap 660 ballast.

I have a feeling that if you go with a 3 bulb set-up you may not be real happy with the balnce between blue and white.

[GaryP]

I have my rare moment. I have 2 X 6 ft. VHO actinic in my 125, but as a supplement to the MH bulbs. The problem with going with 72" bulbs in your case is that you can only get two, or maybe 3, bulbs on a single ballast. Doing with the 4 ft. bulbs may be the way to go here.

Rather than sizing the lights on a watt/gal. basis, I prefer watts/sq. ft. of surface area. Obviously the lights in a deep and a shallow tank of the same number of gallons wouldn't be the same. If your 125 is the standard size (6 X 1.5 ft.) that gives you around 53 watts/gal. That should be satisfactory for most softies and several LPS as well as some of the lower light clams.

[schoeplein]

I've got a 4x110w VHO setup on the IceCap660 ballast (rocking ballast btw). 2xActinic, 2x18k (pink). Way way too pink, but offset by the 175w 10k MH and 130w 50/50 PC. :)

66" long tank... nice. You could possibly get a 4x30" setup - that way you're not replacing 60" bulbs every 3-5mo. The IceCap660 ballast will run anything under under 48".

Either way, it'll work perfectly fine :).

[GaryP]

That sounds like a cool tank. I hate the fact that my 125 is only 18" wide. It'll have to do until I can upgrade. The shallow depth will certainly help.