Lighting for a 65gl

jelezoglo

jelezoglo

Member
I have a 65 gl FOWLR and want to venture into some easy corals....I decided to purchase MH's so there is no need to upgrade later. My question is: what wattage(is that a word???
) is needed for a 65gl.....I tried looking on past threads but not find an exact answer, and if I go to my lfs I'll probably spend much more than necessary.
.
thank you guys for all the info
 
jerthunter

jerthunter

Active Member
I don't think you will find any exact answers but if you are going to go with MH I think a 150 watt MH would be fine with some PC or T5 actinics. I know when I was looking for a new light for my 65 I was considering a fixture with 1 150 watt MH and 2 96 watt pcs. I think that would be plenty of light for pretty much anything.
 
jelezoglo

jelezoglo

Member
Originally Posted by Jerthunter
I don't think you will find any exact answers but if you are going to go with MH I think a 150 watt MH would be fine with some PC or T5 actinics. I know when I was looking for a new light for my 65 I was considering a fixture with 1 150 watt MH and 2 96 watt pcs. I think that would be plenty of light for pretty much anything.
So I would only have to add little bulb in the middle??? because all the MH's I've seen are tiny. I have 2 48" bulbs (1 white and 1 blue), I think they are called actinics. Sorry about the lack of knowledge in all the technical terms.... :help:
 
jerthunter

jerthunter

Active Member
Ohhhh, your 65 gal is a 4 foot tank. I have a 3 foot wide tank so that is why I was thinking one 150 would be fine. I really don't know how it would look on a four foot tank with just 1 MH bulb in the middle.
As for the two bulbs, the blue one is what is referred to as actinic. Although from what I have read there are two types of blue PC bulbs, one that is called 7100K (I think) and it is supposedly useless, and one called actinic 03 which is supposed to be good.
I know they have lower wattage MH's so maybe you could use two smaller MH's, one for each side.
 
jelezoglo

jelezoglo

Member
Is there a formula gallons/watts or inches/watts that would help me calculate what I need without all the guess work????? I am more of an exact science kind of person...lol
:happyfish
 
drewsta

drewsta

Active Member
you want to have about 5 watts per gallon, that way you can keep SPS (small polyp stony) with no problem. If you get metal halides you can get 20K spectrum bulbs which have a very blue tint. Usually people would run 2 48" pc/t5 actinic bulbs and 2 halides. That will make your colors pop in your tank
 
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