lighting on a 125 gal

[spicoly]

hi i'm planning 2 make my canopy over the 125g aquarium and i was thinking on putting 2 mh because if i put 3 the tank has a brace in the midle and it would just get block off from what i can imagine. so now i'm thinking of 2 in the midle of either side of that brase but the question is should i put 2x175w or 2x250w. I would like 2 have corals and clams. Oh by the way i'm putting 2 6" vho atinics on there to.
could you pls give me your thoughts on this matter TKS

[ReefSalt]

Hi on my 125, I have 2 x 250w and T5 Actinics.I to have the brace in the middle and still undecided about adding my third HQI ficture.

But presently with the 2 which I was running on a 90g=48" prior works great.
So I would go 2 x 250w you cant loose out.

[liv]

i would go with either 2x250 or 2 per hole.. ( 4x250 )

or 2x400w

i have a 130g.. about save size 72x18x24 and i currently have 5x175w... and wish i had 3x400w.

[Gools]

I have 175w an want to upgrade now, so if you can go with the 250's go for it. I'm kicking myself now.

[CableGuy]

I agree with the 2 x 250's but if you can afford the power bill on the 400's go with them! You will want them in the end anyway.

[spicoly]

tks guys i'm on my way just purchased 1 250W and going to get the othere soon so there will be a total of 2 250w and 2vho atinics which should be good enough to run on a 125G. Will i be limited in the corals or not? Anothere question what kind of bulbs are you running i was thinking on 6500K but reading something about 10 000K what is this all about? How does this work?

[ReefSalt]

you would definetly want to go with 10,000K and up.the difference is the color that it will give,6500K has a yellow look as for 10k has a white look to it. in addition to your MH if you buy 10K your VHO actinics will give a nice look in your tank.

That being said,which brand of bulb are you thinking of?because that to has different color temps.
there are 13K,14K,ect up to 20k.

[ReefSalt]

Oh yeah,I decided to add my HQI fixture that was lying around over my tank,so my set up has 3 MH 250w,2 x 20k and 1 x 10k.
I thought the brace would obstruct the light but did not really.

[spicoly]

sweet got all my lights now :) looking trough my stuff and found 2 400w MH and one 250W MH now should i go with 2x400W at each end and a 250W in the middle or the other option would be 2x250w at each end and the a 400w in the middle? i will also be running 2 VHO actinics on it as well

[liv]

depends what u want to keep.
id go with 400w on side.. 250 middle.. or 3 400w so its even everywhere.

[CableGuy]

Go with the 2 X 400 watts on each end and the 250 in the middle. you will be able to keep almost any coral under that lighting.

[spicoly]

ok then it's done the 2 400watts on the ends and the 250 in the middle. Now with that kind of lighting i would not have any restriction on corals right and if i do wich one should i be carefull of. I want to be able to have no restrictions I'm just building it right now so not realy worried. getting all the stuff togethere