Lighting ? for newbie

[wushugrl]

I want to change the lights I currently have but have limited $$$ and am either going with fluorescent or PC's. I was wondering if I could keep soft corals, polyps and mushrooms with two Coralife 10000k 30w (each) fluorescent bulbs. If not, I have a Jebo hood and I need to know if I can put PC's in the current hood I have, or if I need a different setup. BTW, I have a 25 gal. tank that's cycling. ANY input would be a big help to me. 'Cause I'm just plain lost.

 

[daniel411]

With two 30w power compacts placed right above a 25g tank, should be able to give enough light to some soft corals, placed really high in the tank.

 

[wyldgunz]

Id get power compacts or VHO . Depending on your buget , JBJ makes a nice one, i think for around $150-200 you can get a really nice one . Ive kept sps corals under them in a 50 gallon ,up high on the live rock so they should do just fine in your tank .
Its good to have around 8-10 watts per gallon but you can get away with something around 100 watts since its a smaller tank . you really cant have too much light. Some ppl that have been doing it for year and years have more leway and can get away with less light since they have the knowlege.

 

[spsfreak100]

Originally posted by WyldGunz
Id get power compacts or VHO . Depending on your buget , JBJ makes a nice one, i think for around $150-200 you can get a really nice one . Ive kept sps corals under them in a 50 gallon ,up high on the live rock so they should do just fine in your tank .
I'm going to strongly discurage anyone adding small polyped scleractinians (with the exception of Montipora spp. and Hydnophora spp.) to a tank running flourecent lighting. They simply will do best under halides, which is what they belong under. Why put any SPS under anything but the best?
Now, WyldGunz, you never meantioned what species of scleractinia you were keeping. You also never meantioned the growth rate and the coloration. Most likely the corals you kept were brown from increased levels of zooxanthellae and never grew. The fact that their alive is most likely not becuase of the lighting you were using, but probably the water conditions in your tank. Lighting alone won't keep an SPS thriving, you also must have a mature tank (I would say around 7 months old, preferably a yeaR), good currents, light biological load, along with good water conditons. PC's, VHO's and T-5's are not the proper lighting for SPS.
[/i]Originally posted by WyldGunz[/i]Its good to have around 8-10 watts per gallon but you can get away with something around 100 watts since its a smaller tank . you really cant have too much light. Some ppl that have been doing it for year and years have more leway and can get away with less light since they have the knowlege. [/B]
Watts per gallon is not a very good method of determining light requirements._ Following this "rule of thumb", 100 watts over a five-gallon tank (20w/g) appears much better than that same 100 watts over a ten-gallon tank (10w/g), but the intensity is lacking in both cases._ One hundred watts is still one hundred watts, no matter how you slice it._ Intensity is the key, the more the better._
Quote by Eric Borneman: “if a coral, for example, requires 15,000 lux to saturate, it needs to get that amount of light regardless of tank size._ So, if a 175 watt metal halide puts out 17,500 lux at the water surface and 8,000 lux ten inches down, it’s enough light for the coral at the surface but not at the bottom.”_
Take Care,
Graham

 

[david s]

I want to change the lights I currently have but have limited $$$ and am either going with fluorescent or PC's.
I would look into some new T5 lights they rock for the money and put out awsome amount of light

 

[wyldgunz]

Hey what can i say i was trying to make it a little easy 8)
You can do sps under vho or pc granted nothing like a halide would do but then again thats why i went with my dual 250 watt double ended 10k ushio's and dual 110 vho super attinics over the 55.Theres a reef shop that in the area with beatiful sps frags kept under vho bulbs .
Some ppl are on a budget like Wushugrl stated , and it is possible if done right to make it work ive seen it various times. I had various mushrooms, steronephthya, zoanthus, alcyonium, acrossota, yellow tubinaria and green clavularia all doing good under the lights and growing slowly but surely for the first 6 months till the big upgrade in lights.
And you have to look at how deep the tank is as compacts will not hit the bottom of a 55 thats why you keep them far on the top where the compacts will hit.. whereas halides a 175w will hit the bottom of a 55 but a 250w is the best choice without going to a 400w and cooking anything at the top.
Just throwing some options out there for her besides Wushugrl has a 25 gallon its not like lighting NewYork 8) huess i should have added in the 5500 , 10k 20k types of buls hehe but then again i was thinking there would be more questions once Wushgrl had more info... but im glad you clarified the light intensisty.