Lighting for a 36by24by18

[Fishobob]

Gday fellas,
Well due to space and floor strength constraints I have now decided to get a 36 long 24 high and 18inch wide tank. I believe this is about 70 US gallons?
Anyway I wanted some help with the lighting. I was thinking about getting a mix of corals because over here in Australia we dont get enough of each type to go a single type of coral tank. I was thinking of going with mainly LPS, a few softies and maybe some sps. I like the corals to have some movement in the water so thats why i'll go mainly lps and softies.
So I was thinking about going for 2 250 watt MH's but I'm still not sure what K rating I want. I dont want below 10000K because as we only have NO bulbs I wouldnt have enough actinic supplementation. So I was thinking of 10000k or maybe 20000k. I saw 20000K bulbs over my lfs corals and they really looked good, it brought out that fluoros in the corals very nicely. By going with 20000K bulbs I wouldnt have to worry about the lack of actinics. But I worry that the tank will be too blue
My lfs has 13000K over his display tanks and he says you dont need any actinics with these bulbs though I think they still look a little too whitish/yellow for my liking but I'm not sure if this is just these bulbs /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif So do any of you guys know anything about these bulbs or use these 13000K bulbs? And if i went with 2 250watt 13000K bulbs would 60 watts of NO actinic be enough?
Or do you guys think I should go with 10000K and 60 watts or actinics?
Any help would really be appreciated. I will start buying my stuff when I finish exams which is tuesday So hopefully by the end of next week I will have started to buy a few things and will start setting up and cycling my tank /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Cheers Fishobob /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/spin.gif

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Fishobob-

I have a 75gallon tank that is 48 long x 20 high x 18 deep. I am currently running 2 x 175w 12000k MH and 2 x 96w actinic PC's and having great success with a mixed reef of softy LPS and SPS.

I would definately go witth the 250w MH and the actinic supplementation is pretty much up to you. Depending on whether you have canopy for your tank or you are looking to go with pendants.


if you have a canopy the 10,000k with actinc is the way to go.
But if you are going with pendants I would go with the 20,000k. I'm not sure how they will look after they burn in and the type of ballast you will be using. I ahve heard good things about the USHIO and the RADIUM.

HTH-

[Flatlander]

I had that exact size tank, for a couple years. It was lit with a single, vertical pendant with a 250w Iwasaki. Thats all I ever used, no actinics or nothing. Of course it was an open top set-up. Very easy to work in.

My tank was full of soft corals and a few lps. There was no lack of coral growth and they were fragged often, to be traded or sold.

[Chuck S]

I would go with 2x250watt halides and acintic supplimentation for a dawn/dusk cycle. That should allow you a nice mix of both soft and hard corals with optimum growth.