250w or 400w Please help

[loveless]

I need help deciding what type of lighting to use.

The easy answer is 400w but is it really needed.

This is for my new tank I am setting up and have a build thread on here http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=51066for it.

Questions and thoughts.

I have read Sanjay Joshi's review http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2009/1/reviewon reflector outputs and am leaning towards the Lumenmax Elite reflectors. The tank is 90" long and 30" wide. The depth of water is approx 22" after the sand is in place. I want to run 3 250watt bulbs over this tank and am wondering if any of you have any thoughts on why I should go with 400's instead. It will be an SPS dominant tank so I realize the requirements are high, but people are having great success with T5's.

The technology and design in todays reflectors go far past what the old spider reflectors were and in my eyes I should be able to get away with a 3 x 250w setup.

Your thoughts and ideas please

Cam

[xtreme]

I am running 3 x 250w with lumenmax 3's on my 72x30x30 BB. My tank is SPS dominant and even the corals and clams on the very bottom of the tank are doing fine. You should be ok with 250's width and depth wise as the elite reflectors are bigger than the 3's. My only concern would be the length, with 90" to cover you might need to go with 4 x 250.

[The Codfather]

I run 3x250 watt over a 45"x30" area, coverage is good. may want to consider 4. Just my thought.

[loveless]

Thanks guys.

Ya I was thinking about running 4 bulbs but am trying to reduce my electricity intake as much as possible. Mr Joshi only uses 3 bulbs on his tank which is 84 x 48, but his bulbs are 400's tho. Good to hear about the depth though.

[Myka]

I wouldn't bother with 400s unless my tank was 36" deep or more. 250s are plenty of light for a 22" deep tank with 30" width for SPS provided you take into consideration the ballast/bulb PAR as well as choose a good quality reflector. I would suggest a reflector that spreads the light well to cover the length and width of your tank like a full-sized Lumenarc, Lumenmax or Lumenbrite. Using one of those reflectors and choosing a good bulb/ballast combo, I think you will do quite well with 3x250w.

[Mrfish55]

The reflector definately makes a big difference, I am running 3x400w in a coralife fixture over the 300 reef and only 2x175w in lumenmax elite reflectors over the 750 fowlr and to the naked eye the 750 looks just as bright as the reef (even better spread and the 750 has a 8'x5' footprint) I have not tested par values and am sure there is a difference. If I could re do the lighting on the reef I would go 3x250w in the lumenmax elite reflectors.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Yup, 250w with good reflectors & maybe hqi ballasts, rather than 400w.

[loveless]

Cool thanks guys. I think I will try the 3x 250W to start with and if things arent working out I will get another 250. All in Lumenmax Elites with electronic ballasts, and maybe 14k bulbs.

[fkshiu]

As I'm sure you've seen from Sanjay's site, there can be huge PAR and electrical differences among 250W setups.

The MAXIMUM PAR setup is an HQI (M80) ballast with SE bulbs. If you use a high PAR bulb like the XM 10K, you'll be getting PAR values GREATER than many 400W setups. However, you'll also be using up around 330W of actual electrical draw.

In contrast, using 250W electronic ballasts with a bluer DE bulb results in less than half the PAR output but you will be using a true 250W of electricity.

As you can see there can be a HUGE discrepancy within the "250W" classification.

[loveless]

As I'm sure you've seen from Sanjay's site, there can be huge PAR and electrical differences among 250W setups.

The MAXIMUM PAR setup is an HQI (M80) ballast with SE bulbs. If you use a high PAR bulb like the XM 10K, you'll be getting PAR values GREATER than many 400W setups. However, you'll also be using up around 330W of actual electrical draw.

In contrast, using 250W electronic ballasts with a bluer DE bulb results in less than half the PAR output but you will be using a true 250W of electricity.

As you can see there can be a HUGE discrepancy within the "250W" classification.

Ya for sure. I will definitely be running electronic ballasts, but am unsure on the bulb choice as of yet. I did notice that the Hamilton 14k bulbs have very low ppfd, as compared to the XM10K. Also when comparing ballasts the PFO seems to overdrive the bulb up as high as 370W as compared to the icecaps which keep the consumption at a fairly level 250W. So if one is running the PFO ballasts, why not just jump up to the 400w range when you are so close to it anyways.

Right now on my current tank I am running 400w radium 20K bulbs with Icecap ballasts and spider reflectors. I was running xm10K bulbs prior and am not a really big fan of the yellow it gives off. Def like the 20k blue tho. With this current setup on sanjay site there is no data, but the ppfd really isnt that high for the other ballast config's so hopefully i can get away with icecap 250 watt ballasts running bluer lights and lower power and ppfd. Time will tell tho.