I'm going to be picking up a tank this weekend that's 48" x 38" x 8". It has a 48" halide/T5 combo with two 250W Halides and 98 Watts of T5 Actinics that is about 2-3 feet above the water. I'm going to use it as a frag tank that houses mainly zoas. Now my question is would that much lighting cause problems with the zoas and cause some sort of photo-inhibition? It just seems like soooo much light for 8" of water.

Thanks

I agree, for an 8" deep tank only housing zoas I think that would be overkill.

Well the problem is it comes with the tank i'm buying...Would it cause any growth problems? The guy doesn't want to separate them..

I would think that they would get fried. I guess if your stuck you could mount the light way over they tank but I would sell the light and try to find something else. Just my opinion, I haven't had experience with that light setup before so maybe I am way off.

Alright thank you, anyone else?

I think it all depends on how much light the Zoas have now (if they are currently all in one tank).

IME, each Zoa colony will react differently to that much light. Some come from water so shallow that the polyps are out of the water during low tides and can handle very strong light as a result. Others are from much deeper water and acclimating them to such strong light may take a long time or never work.

Ok this sounds like it may be a pain in the add kinda... i might just run one halide and throw some SPS on that side and jus actenics & some halide for zoas,

You could probably start by just turning on one of the 250w MH's and the Actinics. Put the Zoas that you find to like less light on the darker side of the tank. Or you could use the 2nd MH on a shorter photo period.

From what I have seen in Zoas from FL, the more green and the tighter together the polyps are, the shallower the water they come from is. That is just what I have seen though, I don't know if that actually holds true.

Thank you so much. I guess it's mostly trial and error. I'll see how it plays out.

That tank sounds awesome, on a brighter note. Plus, you never know, you might just get insane-o growth. Trial and error is king in these situations. Pictures would be welcome.

Either way throwing a higher K bulb in there will help. Go as blue as you can on the halides.

dude you could probably get away with just using those 100w of t5s

I know I got a killer deal on it and i'm hopefully picking it up this weekend. Really excited . I'll throw up a thread when I get it home. Probably have to wait till I get a RO/DI system before filling it up for obvious reasons. This gives me a reason to get into SPS.

Won't be too much light. I promise. Acclimate them well, you'll be fine. Just hang the lights 1.5+ feet above the water.

If you promise you must be right

I must be!

My LFS I work at has a 4x4x10-12 inch frag tank. Rock on the bottom, eggcrate makin a platform around 6 inches from the bottom. So the corals are around 6-8 inches from the bottom. He is using two 400w radiums w/ a really nice reflector about 1.5-2 feet from the water. Now some of the nicer chalices turn dull, but nothing really bleaches.

Plus, if you don't hang them high, you won't get any coverage.