Kinds of lighting?

superty

New Member
I am just starting my first tank, which is a 46gal bow front, and I want to put the best of everything in it. I have a maroon clown fish, sail fin tang, and a copper banded butterfly, foxface, and a blonde naso tang. I have a power glow 30watt right now. Can anyone suggest the best lighting for my tank to bring out all of the color of the fish? Thanks
 

logan15

Active Member
wow your tank cant have any of the tangs a naso needs at least a 125 gallon tank and so does the sailfin tang the copperband butterfly is hard to take care of I wouldnt worry about the lighting but the tangs
 

legion

Member
I'm no titan trigger. but your tank has alot of stock. Usually people say 1 inch of fish for every 5 to7 gallons(full grown adult size). You have alot more than 9-10 inches of fish for your 46g. I would suggest taking some back, probably the most aggressive ones and the ones that need room to graze and swim. Like the previous post said, some fish need much larger aquariums than yours to be in good health. Also, on the lighting, were you looking to just highlight the fish or their tank mates(coral, algae, inverts, etc.. If you want any of these in your tank, I'd upgrade.
 

superty

New Member
Thanks for the advise. I am hoping to upgrade my tank in the near future and turning the 46gal into a coral reef tank.
 

logan15

Active Member
near future how long is that? no matter what your going to upgrade get the naso out and the sail fin tang.The minimum for a naso is 125 and so is it for the sailfin please take them back
they dont need to be in your 46 any longer?How old is the system
Logan
 

justinx

Active Member
Welcome to the board! I think that you will find a lot of information here and if you take some of the advice you will have a splendid tank. But first off, we need to get some things straight.
Has your tank cycled yet?
How long has it been set up?
Did you add your fish all at once? How long ago?
I hope that the answers are yes, a number greater than 3 in terms of months, and no. Otherwise, you have a watery grave on your hands. Seriously, do some research and you will find that your tank, regardless of the answers to these questions, is severly overstocked and will lead to disaster.
For starters, many people would not put any tang in a tank smaller than 55 gallons let alone 46 gallons.
Secondly, Copperbanded butterfly fish have poor rates of survival in captivity, they are very picky eaters and are usually difficult to keep well fed.
The clown may be OK, but not if your tank hasnt cycled.
The best piece of advice that i can offer is to slow down. I am not trying to flame you or be mean. I do think though that you are headed for problems with your current set up and I as well as many others do not want to see the needless suffering of marine fish. What you should do is try and take some, if not all of the fish back your LFS and start over at a slower pace. a lot of times, stores will give you credit so that you dont lose any money, this way you may not have to buy your fish twice.
 
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