Ya you will need 3 MH lamps to produce an even lighting appearance. If you only plan to keep softies and corals, you could get away with a single MH, and supplement with T5s, just put the clams under the MH. if you do it that way though, your lighting will not be even. It will be really bright under the MH, and then much dimmer under just the T5s. You will need your MH lamps to be at least 250w for the clams. Buying 3 MH lamps just for softies and a few clams seems like quite a waste to me, as the softies do not need that strong lighting.
The biggest difference between a 70g and a 180g will be setup costs, and they will be considerably higher. There will be a lot more live rock (think about 150 lbs minimum at $4-8/lb), lots of sand, a much bigger skimmer, more lighting, etc. A 180g is quite a considerable project to tackle.
As far as the sand goes, DSB is kind of old school now. there are still people that do it, but there are more disadvantages than there are advantages imo.
__________________
~ Mindy
SPS fanatic.
|