Lighting OVER KILL???

[peteyg118]

I have a 55 gallon aquarium, with 8 65 watt power compacts, more in detail theres 4 10,000k coralife power compacts, 2 royal blue coralife power compacts, and 2 actinic coralife power compacts, which gives me a total of 520 watts and 9.45 watts per gallon. what are your opinions???

 

[bonebrake]

That is OK lighting for that tank.
Watts per gallon is meaningless.
It is all about appropriate light intensity for the given depth of water you are trying to light.
A 55 gal. tank is too high to be lit efficiently enough for any SPS or clams unless the lights are 1" from the water's surface and the SPS or clams would be 1" beneath the water which would not be aesthetically pleasing.
You could keep any softie or LPS with that lighting over a 55 gal. though.

 

[reefkprz]

Originally Posted by peteyg118
http:///forum/post/2686164
I have a 55 gallon aquarium, with 8 65 watt power compacts, more in detail theres 4 10,000k coralife power compacts, 2 royal blue coralife power compacts, and 2 actinic coralife power compacts, which gives me a total of 520 watts and 9.45 watts per gallon. what are your opinions???
I have 576w pc over my 65g and think its ok I would rather have more but no mor ebulbs will fit over the tank. your better off not evenn thinking in terms of watts per gallon. its a totally innacurate way to tabulate your lighting. par is the factor you want to consider PC bulbs are decidedly mediocre they dont have the intensity to drive high light deep into a tank.

 

[haus]

So what has the best lighting to get deep in to tank

 

[bonebrake]

Metal halides and T5s with individual reflectors penetrate the best for what is available to aquarists.

 

[xtreeme]

you want around 80-160 lumens per gallon for soft coral. That is 2 or 4watt T5 OR 1 or 2 watt T2 (70 lumen). You can use watts, if you know the lumen per watt of the bulb kind. But saying 2 watts per without knowing kind is no good. PAR is the section of light for photosynthesis. Diff types of light will have diff par, same with diff wavelength (most know that but might help somebody).