lighting question

[martym]

Do you think a 36"X6 bulb T5 Tek light, would be enough light for a 90g SPS tank?

[StirCrazy]

It all depends on how fast you want stuff to grow. Personally if you are setting up a dedicated SPS tank that means you are looking at a high light environment and in my opinion you should be looking at MH with T5 supplementation.

Steve

[martym]

I am using the lighting in my 50g SPS tank with great growth. A 90 would be so much bigger and deeper, that's why I'm asking
Thanks

[tang daddy]

I would say that with a height of 24" it would not be sufficient light for sps.

I have a tek 6 light over a 24" tank and it's dim however I will be switching to a 16" tank soon.

[Pan]

I would say that with a height of 24" it would not be sufficient light for sps.

I have a tek 6 light over a 24" tank and it's dim however I will be switching to a 16" tank soon.
I have a 6 light tek over my tank as well, 24" SPS are fine, in fact they are doing better than just okay :) Metal Halides grew things faster no doubt as well as placement near bottom was of no concern. But with my tek's (should have kept my other fixture though) grow sps fine as long as they are about 6inchs from the bottom or higher.

[martym]

Thank you.

[Trigger Man]

Ya my lighting (t5s) grows my sps well, so I figure you should be alright. In the end it will depend on bulb selection as to how quick the coral will grow.

[albert_dao]

You'll do fine with it. You'll do even better if you run a small fan to blow air across the bulbs.

[martym]

Why is that? (Air across the bulbs)

[lastlight]

The bulbs run optimally I believe at a certain temperature. I think the label-end of the tube should be around 115 deg F.

[martym]

I've never herd that before. Interesting

[fkshiu]

+1

Having a small fan blowing on the bulbs will help prolong bulb life.

[Trigger Man]

Does having a fan just prolong bulb life?

[Doug]

Does having a fan just prolong bulb life?

Actually with the enclosed fixtures with cooling fans, tests showed a decrease in par when hot, as opposed to higher when fans were running.

Not sure what the effect would be on an open fixture like the Tec. but it has to be good for bulb life in the least.

I found Mike,s 8 bulb Tec over a 2ft. deep 120 to be enough for most any corals. Four bulbs on my 90g were not enough, except for sps at the top of the rocks. My 6 bulb fixture would be close to enough but dont know if it would have enough penetration for sps on the bottom of the 90g? Although thats just guessing.