Lighting question

casa

casa

Member
I'm running a 35g tank that has been up for almost 2 months now. I would like to make it a reef tank and have an anemone for my clowns and other corals. I'm looking at purchasing a light source that will be able to keep anemones and such but do not want to spend a lot of money.
The guy at the LFS said he runs a 35g tank and has a PC 96w that will let him host almost anything but clams and some hard corals. Is this true? could i get by with that little lighting? is 96w going to be enough? or what else can i buy without spending a fortune?
 
fishieness

fishieness

Active Member
96 watts will allow you to keep anything but clams, anenomes, and MOST hard corals. AKA, he would be able to keep softies and maybe a hammer if kept up very high. If you want an anenome (besides aiptasia
), i would recomend either MH or some t5s. How much you want depends on what you eventualy plan to keep.
i have found that lighting is like tank size, you always want to go bigger.
but you also are able to without tons of work. I started off with NO, then i got PCs, now i have a 150 watt DE MH and 2X65 watt PCs over my 40 breeder and i want to upgrade again.
lol
I would recomend doing it right the first time and burning a hole in your wallet once instead of 2-3 times.
 
fishieness

fishieness

Active Member
PS: if you dont want to spend the money (keep in mind your electric bill too), your clowns will host pleanty of things that dont require MH lighting such as many softies like hairy mushrooms, toadstool, xenia, anthillia, and many LPS that will do fine with PCs like a frogspawn or a hammer.
although i am telling you right now, when i switched to MH, all my corals grew faster and had a lot more color. But the choice is yours.
PPS: thanks for asking questions first and buying later instead of buying now and asking if you have enough lighting :cheer: we are all guilty of it at one point..... like when i listened to the LFS when he said i coudl have a mandarin with 15 pounds of LR. so i bought 15 poudns right then at 7 bucks a pound... a lot of money for a kid who gets 20 bucks a week. I came on here and foudn it was inadequate and returned it. Now i have 90 pounds that i let mature for about a year, and i jsut got one a few weeks ago. it is doing very well now with all those pods

PPPS:You can find some realy good deals on auctionsites or even selling forums around the internet for used, and even new, equiptment.
 
fishieness

fishieness

Active Member
you could do VHO for an anenome. one that doesnt require as much like a bubble tip. Many do not believe it woudl be possible for long term. But you probably could, the only thing is, you would need LOTS of it. VHO and PC are definatly not a waste, but you just need more power to be able to keep the higher light requiring animals.
and as far as electricity, that would depend on how many watts you get.
 
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