lighting in 55gal tank???

[eq2118]

need advice:
i have a used 55 gal acrylic tank with stand and hood. the hood came with 2 30w lighting. i am thinking this is not what i need for my tank. i plan on making a standard reef tank with a few clowns, chromis, mandarin, and cleaning crew with limited coral ie brain, few mushrooms. my canopy holds two bulbs.....what lighting would you recommend for this setup. thanks

 

[ross]

If you only want to keep some lower light corals you could get an ice cap 660 and this will run 4 4ft vho bulbs. This would be adequate light for softies.(someone correct me if i am wrong)
BTW mandarins need tons of pods and i would recomend at least 75lbs of lr to have one. He would even eat all the pods from that so you would need a good refugium.

 

[temple2101]

I'm not expert on lighting, but I'll at least tell you what I have. I have a 55gal with 2 110W VHO's mounted in a canopy. With that setup I was told I could do pretty much most softies and LPS (I'm assuming that's all you want to do?) So far I have assorted shrooms and zoos, as well as a candy cane coral, and two types of xenia. I will be upgrading this week and adding another 220W of VHO. So, anyway ... I would go with VHO lighting. However ... let a few others respond because they are WAY more experienced than I am. HTH!

 

[temple2101]

I agree with ross about having 4 vho's ... that is why i'm adding 2 more. Also, I know ice cap ballasts are great, but if you wanna save some money, my workhorse 7 works great for me! (you would need 2 for 4 VHO's)

 

[mike19881956]

wat do u have to get besides the bulbs themselves (Balasts-we they r plz help me- A new hood with fans?)

 

[beth]

You can use VHO's or PCs with moderate to lower light corals. PCs will cost less money.
However, on that list of fish, leave off the mandarin. Mandarins require large, very well-establed reef tanks preferably with copepod refugiums. Copepods being their primary source of food. In the absence of this, a mandarin will slowly strave or, at least, be malnurished.

 

[eq2118]

thanks for the advice on the mandarin, i definitely do not want to create a less than sufficient environment for it!