Help with lighting!!!

[josh95632]

Hey everyone,
I currently have a 40 gallon acrylic fish tank with about 120 pound of fiji live rock. I have a few corals: yellow polyps, star polyps, and a few different types of mushrooms. I am looking into getting some better looking corals, such as candy cane corals, brain corals, etc, and was wondering what kind of lighting I need. I currently just have the power compact lighting that I got from a LFS and it has one actinic light bulb, and the other one is just a regular white, not sure on the wattage.
I know I need to get metal halide lighting in order to keep most soft corals, but need to know how many watts and bulbs I would need. I have seen some pictures where the lighting seems mostly blue, and the corals almost look like they glow in the dark. What kind of corals are those? And what kind of bulb would I need?
I'm just trying to make my tank as cool as I can! This is my show tank that I put in the middle of my two slot machines. I dont want to spend too much in lighting, so if you can give me an estimate in what it would cost to get this kind of fixture that would be great! My tank is 36" long!
Thanks for any help!

 

[wax32]

On a 40 gallon PC's will be fine for most soft corals. It's the stony corals that really start to want metal halides. Its possible you will want more than 2 bulbs tho.

 

[josh95632]

Thanks for the quick info! I was just reading another post and somebody had said the same thing. I'm trying to look online for a power compact- 30" hood. Does anybody know where to find these at a good price? I'm looking on ---- right now! That's usually the cheapest place to find most things! Also, what wattages of lights would i need if I had 4- 30" compacts? Would all actinics give my corals that glowing look? Thanks for your help- Josh!

 

[josh95632]

Here's a list of some of the coral from SWF.com that I'm interested in getting...
Brain - Green Closed
Brain - Green Open
Brain - Red Open
Bubble Coral
Carnation - Orange
Candy Cane Coral
Christmas Tree Coral
Distichopora - Purple
Goniopora - Branching
Hammer Coral - Green
Leather - Cabbage
Orange Finger
Pink Finger
Plate Corals
Sun Coral - Orange
Xmas Tree Rock
Yellow Finger
Do you think the actinic lighting will cover most of these corals? If not--- which ones won't it? And will any of these give the glowing affect under the actinics? I know the star polyps will!

 

[josh95632]

BUMP!