WhoDey

Hello everyone,

After about 3-4 hours of searching on the internet for what type of lighting to go with I have come to a conclusion.

-MH are too expensive and require additional purchases(fans, chillers). Although they are probably the best thing for your tank. $500-700 for a 55 gal tank.

-PowerCompact Fluorescent lights are the cost effective way to go... I can get 4.8 Watts/ Gal. with this setup (retro because I have a canopy) marineandreef.com/ Coralife Aqualight Retrofit Compact Fluorescent Retrofit Kits

I get 260 watts total for only $186.

I have looked at the charts on this website and they are saying that this light will be able to grow any type of coral out there. As long as they don't have to go any deeper than 20" or so in the tank, which is my case. I'm not really planning on growing coral right away I'm aware there are many other factors that must be in place to do so... I just would like to be set up for it when I"m ready to go in that direction.

Do you agree with my findings that this light will be acceptable for growing coral in the future??
If not is there another combo of lights out there that you can suggest in the same price range??

I want some nice lights for my rock so it will grow nice deep colors... I have read that if you use the factory lights that come with the tank you probably aren't going to get that effect.

Any ideas people??? Thanks!!


-Nate

ahill3780

Hey Nate,

IMO the PCs will do just fine. So long as you meet the W/gallon recommendation for your future corals then it doesn't matter whether you make use of PC or MH.

FYI though, the lighting will have little to do with the color your LR achieves. Coralline algae is a low-light algae and will develop the same color whether it is under intense lighting, or in the shade. And IME my deepest purple coralline spots appeared on a rock that was in the perpetual shade of an overhanging ledge.

It is hard to influence the growth of coralline in specific locations, and nigh impossible to cultivate a specific shade or color. It is going to develop whatever color it chooses.

HTH,
Aaron

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WhoDey

Thanks Aaron,

I also want to mention another type of light I'm hearing about. I've heard some people say they had 260 watts of PC then switched to the Tek Light 48" 4 lamp T5-HO Fluorescent 54 watts each... and they said they noticed a big difference in their coral growth. Any thoughts here? Do you think that this type of light is actually better? Or is this just a stand alone case and it probably won't matter which light I chose.....

-Nate

Jay

Hey Nate,

You might want to look here for kits, these guys are well liked.

--> 36 or 55 watt Bright Kits

Jay

ahill3780

Thanks for the link Jay!

Nate,

Theres probably more to the increase in coral health than just the different type of lighting. Everything about lighting factors into the equation when you are talking about corals, but mostly intensity, and color rendition. Different combinations will work differently for different corals.

As I've stated previously, so long as you are providing enough intensity of the proper spectrum(s) then corals will do well with whatever type of bulb used to produce it.

PCs are great, cost-efficient fixtures. T5s are the new fad in lighting and are gaining a lot of support recently. They offer the ability to pack more bulbs over the tank than any other lighting because they are so thin. The more bulbs you have over the tank, the more illumination they are going to provide, and the better results you are going to see.

You can get the same effect by using the high powered 96W PC bulbs as you would from the HO T5s. It just depends on how many bulbs you pack over the tank. The total watts per gallon is what you are aiming for here.

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shelleyb

I just posted a forum about coral but I just have a marine glo which is blue and a power glo which is 18000k.My corals seem to be fine.I am unsure of lighting at this time and what they all mean but it says it is fine for coral.I have a 75 gal sw tank.