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Re: Large tank lighting and to sump or not to sump?


The tank is an Oceanic 240 gallon reef ready. 8 feet long x 2 feet deep x 2
feet tall.

I am going to be using Metal Halide lighting, 175 watt lamps. I have purchase
three 2 x 175 watt retro kits. I am debating between using 4 or 5 175 watt MH
lamps. 6 seems like overkill to me, but I could also do that. I think a

6 lights would be overkill. And remember that every light is going to have a noticeable impact on your electric bill. A single 175 watt lamp, using the usual 80% ballast efficiency will cost you $7.85/month when run for 12 hours a day at 10 cents per kilowatt hour.

general rule of thumb is one 175 watt lamp for every two feet of tank length. Other
considerations are that this is a rather deep tank compared to others I have
had. I can easily resell one of the retro kits if I only use two of the kits.

So how many 175 watt lamps should I use: 4, 5, or 6?

Wattage gets you depth, quantity of lights gets you coverage. The general rule of thumb is that one fixture is good for a 2 x 2 foot square area. With your tank, that would mean you'd need 4 fixtures to cover your 2 foot wide by 8 foot long tank. This is using pendent-type fixtures though. Using a close-to-the-water hood might result in a bit less area covered per fixture, but I doubt it would be enough to worry about.

I'm also trying to decide whether to use a sump or just plumb the Eheim
Cannisters into the bulkhead fittings like I did my old 125 gallon.

I like sumps since you can hide things in them and they allow the tank to maintain a constant water level. If you size the sump carefully you can do a complete water change without effecting the water level in your tank at all, which I think is a big plus. It is possible to use a canister with a sump to gain some mechanical filtration. I am mostly just concerned with water circulation though and haven't used filters on my planted tanks in some time.

-Bill

I'd appreciate any input from list members that use sumps in thier planted
tanks.

Thanks for any help.

Dave


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