500 Gallon Tank, Help
 

OK so I got this new 500 gallon tank

its 8' long X 38" tall X 30" wide

I need to figure out how many M.H. and VHO to put over this tank.
4-400W MH 10K (I dont know what brands to get)
4-6ft VHO Super Atinics

I want to keep zoos, mushrooms, lps, softies, maybe a few clams and sps also.


The 500 gallon will be in the living room on the ground floor while the sump will be a 240 in the basment.

my question is what pump should I get for the return pump and how much flow do I want.

Maybe I could go with a little smaller pump and supplement the tank water movement with some type of powerheads in the 500 gallon display.

I would get 4x 400w MH - Icecap electronic ballasts with lumenmax elite reflectors.

You will definitely need some powerheads in there regardless of your return pump. I would consider 4 x Tunze 6205 with a multi controller. That will give you some good random flow.

There are other options but that will set you up really well. Hopefully someone will pipe in with some return pump suggestions.

depending on how high the pump has to go. distance from the upstairs tank mto the basement is going to determine what size pump. also what bulk heads are installed and how many returns you have. are you looking for a closed loop or using power heads? alot of questions need to be answered first. i do think the four tunze will be good though. are you going bare bottom or dsb because that will also have an impact on how much flow.

No this tank will no have a closed loop, there are no holes for it and I don' t want to get the tank drilled.

As for the sand I will have a few inches of sand bed; I prefer the look of the sand more realistic.


the 240 sump will sit on a stand in the basement as well 500 gallon in the living room will be on a stand; I'm thinking the pump will have about 12' of head.

bump

Sanjay has a 8' x4' tank and he runs 3 LumenArc reflectors with 250w Geisemann bulbs. He switched to them from 400 watters because they make roughly as much PAR as the 400w bulbs did

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...ghlight=sanjay

James

No, I did not switch to 250s on my 500G tank... it was on my 180G that I switched to 250s.

If its only 30" wide and 38" tall, I would go with the Lumenmax Elite, or the Lumen Brite reflectors. Depending on the aquascape you plan you can get away with 3. I would try with 3 and then may be latter add a 4th if you really need it.

sanjay.

so if i run 3 400watt metal halides

do i need to supplement with vhos also

Sorry Sanjay, my bad.

James

where do you guy buy these lumen brights reflectors

Reefspecialty.com
http://www.reefspecialty.com/Lightin..._28/index.html|

Check out the lumemmax elite i have one. they are super nice and no hot spots. my whole reflector stays cool to the touch

i dont see the elites on that site am i missing them

also what ballast and bulb would you guys run


i also need ideas for my return pump

heres a pick of the new tank, crappy pic from my cell phone

ill get some better ones

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5.../500gallon.jpg