Lights for a 40 gallon breeder?

[bronck83]

Picked up a 40 gallon breeder from Texas Tropical this weekend(36" long). I think the depth is 18". I want metal halides, I was thinking 150x2, would anything bigger turn it into a hot tub? Tank is going to be reef, some fish.

[Texreefer]

It really depends on if you are going to have a canopy and what type of ventilation you use. 250w would work just fine with an open top and the ability to raise and lower the lights

[bronck83]

I'll be making a canopy once I buy the lights so I can customize it to whatever is necessary. Would 150x2 be underpowered then?

[erikharrison]

Honestly, look at buying the right lights the first time and not the second. :) 250w on 18 inches of depth? Your corals will love you, but you need to make sure that whatever corals that you do get are acclimated to the light over a few days so they don't bleach! Make a nice TALL canopy, that way you can move around, add rocks etc without having to remove the canopy. I am sure you will hear stories of people burning an arm or two from not having sufficient room.

[Fish4life]

go with the 250's using a good reflector either a retro pfo parabolic or lumenarc mini's. Have you thought about t5 lighting? I love my new t5's!

Cheers,

Kurt

[jtrux]

Chris I thought your tank was 36 wide, 18 deep (front to back) and 16 tall, not 18, but I doubt it makes a huge difference.

[bronck83]

I don't remember, I'll measure later.

[bronck83]

PS. anyone got any MH's they want to sell me?

[erikharrison]

there's a dual 250 setup with pfo mini pendants for sale in the F/S/T forum. :)

[captexas]

It also depends on what you want to keep in the tank. I have a 45g reef tank that is similar dimensions as yours, it's 36 long by 18 wide by 18 tall, and I run 2 VHO's (95watts each) and a 250watt DE metal halide. I think putting 2 x 250watt halides might be a bit of overkill, but that's my opinion.

If I had the room, I would have gone with a single ended 250watt halide as the smaller bulb and reflector of the DE limits how much the light spreads through the tank.

[erikharrison]

I would have gone with a single ended 250watt halide as the smaller bulb and reflector of the DE limits how much the light spreads through the tank.

I totally agree! I have a DE on my 4' 75g and it will not light end to end. On that note, I only want one now since my tank has now been rescaped to look more like a colloseum. The ends are not highly lit and are full of caverns. The fish love it, and it also gives me a makeshift cryptic area inside the tank. I have some terrible super skinny T5s that are like 25 watts or something along with a 96 w 36" 460 actinic bulb in it. Looks pretty neat, I think. :) Here's a terrible picture after I added the second half.

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x315/erikharrison/Fish/FTSMedium.jpg