HELP with lighting

[ctward30]

Just purchased a 120 gallon tank 48x18x31tall it has 2 150 watt halides and a 400 watt halide question is should I just run the 2 150 watt lights or run all 3

[nibor]

What livestock do you want to keep in the tank?

 

Do the lights have decent reflectors, what brand are the fixtures and bulbs?

[ctward30]

Pretty good reflectors and the company is PFO ballast and not sure on bulbs

[evilc66]

150W halides by themselves, even with good bulbs and reflectors won't be enough for a 31" tall tank. It sounds like the tank was set up with the 400W in the center, and the 150's at each end to bolster the light output from the 400W at the ends of the tank.

 

Normally, a tank that deep would be running high end 250W MH setups (two of them) for a decent mixed reef, and 400W MH (again, two of them) for a heavy sps tank.

[ctward30]

That's how it is 400 in the middle and 2 150's on the end, so I need to run all 3 lights?

[DC5]

That's how it is 400 in the middle and 2 150's on the end, so I need to run all 3 lights?

 

That depends on what corals you want to keep. If you bought a used setup, with all of the livestock, then you will probably need to run all of them. If you just have fish, then no.

[ctward30]

I'm sorry i just got home and checked the ballast, its 2X 250 and 400 in the middle

[ctward30]

So if there are 2 250 watt ballast on each end and 1 400 watt ballast in the middle I should run all of them?

[evilc66]

If you aren't planning on having a high light tank, then you could probably get away with just the 250W halides. Some of it really depends on the quality of the reflector. Post a picture of them if you can't find any details on the reflector itself. We should be able to identify them.

[kush.]

it all depends on what you want to keep. If you want to keep alot of sps and some lps i would go all three. If you wanted to do softies and some lps the 2 should be fine.