250 MH Pendant Coverage

[SeanCallan]

As I'm planning my new tank I've decided to minimize the number of lamps I need to keep around and hopefully be a little friendly on the power bill.

 

I love the look of pendants, so for the time being I think I've decided to go with a reef optix 3 250w 14K. (I'm open to suggestions, this will be my first MH tank, I've traditionally relied on VHO setups or CF)

 

What tank sizes would this setup suit? For an SPS open tank, what is the deepest and widest you could get while still ensuring that coral at those ends of the spectrum are still receiving adequate lighting?

 

It's an ugly question I apologizes I'm not sure how to phrase it more better.

[ReeferMan]

Luminarcs give a good 24x24 spread with 12 inches on each side of lower light for LPS and some SPS. I have 2 Luminarc minis over a 36x24 tank and love them

[dbartco]

Assuming you have a 6' ish tank?

 

Looked into lightbars? may get by with, say 2, if you don't mind the light moving a bit.

[SeanCallan]

Assuming you have a 6' ish tank?

 

Looked into lightbars? may get by with, say 2, if you don't mind the light moving a bit.

 

I don't have a tank yet, I'm in the planning stages. I'm trying to spend more time planning (and plotting) than I do in the actually execution. This way I can eliminate a number of unnecessary surprises and know that the end product will be exactly what I want.

 

Right now I'm looking into 24x24x? cubes and wanted to ensure that the pendant would provide the necessary light for SPS at all places in the tank.

[SeanCallan]

I forget which user it is on these forums whos doing the CADlight 39g but I've been following their RC thread and I was curious how the 150 HQI lights hold up?

 

I vaguely remember someone telling me to stay away from 175s but would a 150 be enough for a 30-40 gallon tank or is that trying to cut too many corners?