Originally Posted by
ColdShot
http:///forum/post/2997398
I have a light setup that is 2-65 watt flourescent and 2 65 watt actinics and the basic moonlight. Is this enough light for soft coral and LPS or should I save and upgrade. My tank is a standard 55 gallon. When I read the description of corals on this site and other site would this be considered low to medium lighting or just low.? Any input would be a great help. One day I will upgrade just cant swing it yet. thnx for any and all input....
Actinics don't provide very useful light for coral growth. Their purpose is to provide light that makes the tank look nicer.
So you can't really count those... at least not when they are half of your light.
So 130 watts of PC... that's not much. I'd consider your lighting levels to be "very low." You may be able to keep some very low light stuff like mushrooms, but that's about it.
You have a couple options... first, removing one or both of the actinic lamps and replacing them with 14K or so lamps, you'll effectively double the useful light (PAR) and probably be able to keep more stuff like Zoas, Leathers, maybe even some LPS. Of course doing so with PC lamps may make the tank look too "yellow" for you.
The other option is to replace your lighting system with a T5 system. I like this option better, because PC lamps (what you have) need to be replaced so often when you keep coral that the amount of money needed to maintain a system quickly exceeds what a brand new T5 system would cost you. PCs have to be replaced every 6 months, T5 every 2 years or so, and the lamps cost about the same, so you can see where I'm coming from.
A 6 lamp, 48", 54w fixture will let you keep absolutely anything you want, and you can get the whole thing for probably $300-400. If you figure that every time you change PC lamps in your fixture it's $100 in lamps, you can see how quickly that is going to add up.
