90 gal Reef Lighting?

[Feelin_Salty]

I just got a 90 gal pre drilled tank, it's a beauty. Now all I need is everything else. I plan on going with a refugium and making a nice reef system... But The lights are confusing me a little. I know I need 4 to 5 watts per gal, and with 90 gal that's 450 watts. So i'm pretty sure I need go with a Metal Halide setup... But when I'm lookin at em on ebay, I'll see it says it has two metal halide bulbs and then on the pic of the setup it'll show four more bulbs in there too. What are those ones? Will they be on all day too?
During the dusk to dawn affect, what exactly happens?
I wanna go with lunar lights as well, does it matter how many i have...I have a 48" long tank.

[Reefneck]

Originally Posted by Feelin_Salty

But The lights are confusing me a little. I know I need 4 to 5 watts per gal, and with 90 gal that's 450 watts. So i'm pretty sure I need go with a Metal Halide setup... But when I'm lookin at em on ebay, I'll see it says it has two metal halide bulbs and then on the pic of the setup it'll show four more bulbs in there too. What are those ones? Will they be on all day too?
During the dusk to dawn affect, what exactly happens?
I wanna go with lunar lights as well, does it matter how many i have...I have a 48" long tank.

Hi,
Forget the Watts per gallon myth and think about what you plan to keep.

Soft corals only can do fine with PC (Power Compact) lighting with no SPS or LPS & without clams .

Clams, SPS & LPS Corals as well as most anemones would do best with Halides. Don't buy the cheap lights (Jebo/Odyssea) on ebay! The bulbs are crap and the ballasts might last a month if you're lucky. In other words, Junk.

As for the "other" bulbs beside the halides they are Actinics. Actinics are blue in color and used to keep down that yellow look caused by the brighter daylight bulbs. The Actinics are on during the day as well as the daylights normally. Some people turn off the daylights an hour before the actinics to create the "dusk" effect and Actinics on an hour before the daylights for "Dawn".

As for moonlights, They are purely aesthetic. Nothing has been proven that anything benefits from them other than the fishkeeper. That being said, I have them and love them.

The light I would recommend to you would be the Current USA Outer Orbit which has the MH's, Actinics & Moons all built into an attractive fixture with legs that hold it off the tank top to reduce heat.

I hope my ramble helps you.

[TheOldSalt]

Uhm..actually, the moon lights are very useful IF they are used with a lunal cycle timer. If they aren't then there's really no point in bothering with them.

A well timed lighting arrangement will have lights that come on dimly and grow brighter & brighter over several minutes, simulating sunrise, and likewise simulating sunset by growing dimmer until they shut off completely. This probably isn't really necessary for anything, but it does prevent the shock of sudden change which can only be a good thing. It's a nice option to get if you can. Some units even simulate the sun's movement across the sky by moving the brightest spot across the tank over the course of the day.
I knew this one kid, named Santiago Gutierrez, who invented an LCD screen which randomly simulated moving cloud cover! It didn't catch on, but it was kewl.

The lunar lights are used for spawning corals & clams & other inverts by simulating the monthly lunar cycle which controls such spawning, but again, without the proper timing, lunar lights are worthless. It really bugs me that every light system on the market seems to include lunar lights these days, but fails to include the timer. How lame is that?

[Reefneck]

Originally Posted by TheOldSalt

Uhm..actually, the moon lights are very useful IF they are used with a lunal cycle timer. If they aren't then there's really no point in bothering with them.

Sorry if I am hijacking the thread but we are still talking about lighting.

The lunar lights are used for spawning corals & clams & other inverts by simulating the monthly lunar cycle which controls such spawning, but again, without the proper timing, lunar lights are worthless. It really bugs me that every light system on the market seems to include lunar lights these days, but fails to include the timer. How lame is that?

I hadn't heard this before but it sounds reasonable. So what timers would offer the best sequence to create this? I have a Coralife Powerstrip with a digital timer built in on mine but it is On/Off and that's it. Both the Actinics and Daylights are on during the day and when they switch off the moons come on. I would love to find a timer with a built in "dimmer" to slowly brighten the lights as you mentioned, Starting with the actinics then an hour later turning up the daylights. Can't find anything that does that.

Any suggestions or ideas?

[TheOldSalt]

Hmmm... there used to be ads aplenty for things like that in the fish magazines, and there probably still are even though they're small & hard to spot. There is one ballast regulator made to be used with Icecaps, for example, which make your bulbs do all the tricks. The Icecap people don't make it, though. It's an aftermarket gizmo, but the Icecap people certainly know who makes it and what it's called..I think it starts with the letter "N'. It's been awhile since I saw one.
As for lunar light timers, these are also made by small companies, although I remember seeing one big name light company offer a hood with complete lunar cycle control capability in some ad a few months ago.

I'm sure a quick google search can find some of these things, and some of the big online stores which carry oodles of and/or specialize in reef products would probably also know exactly what you're talking about if you asked. I'm afraid I'm not able to go digging through magazines at the moment.