Lighting Question

[stevew]

I'm a newbie, about 2 months into this with a 75 gallon tank, 4 damsels, I am starting to add Live Rock as I can afford it, I really like the coralline algea and would like to get this growing. Maybe in late summer start with some easy corals like mushrooms, leathers, etc, don't except to be

[hr]
into corals, just simple stuff to round out the tank. All I have now is the 40 watt flor plastic hood that came with the tank. My LFS guy was trying to sell me a CustomSeaLife hood with 2 65 Watt PC Smart Lights. He said with this I would be able to keep 75% of the corals they stock in the store. He also said the PC lights actually rate 25% higher than their wattage, so 130 Watts of PC is more like around 160, plus my 40 Watt flor would give me 200 watts. How accurate is this information?

 

[q]

To me it seams under powered for a 75. If you are happy with keeping low light corals then no need to worry. 4 65W bulbs would be better.
I would suggest knowing what you want to have in the tank before you buy.

 

[jester]

is there a basic standard?
watts to gallons that is...

 

[nosmada]

ive always been told 5-7watts per gal. is a good range. it does depend on what you want to keep though. ie. mushrooms and pollyps can go with the lower end.
hth,
chris

 

[hondo]

Nothing wrong with the CSL light he's trying to sell you but you will still need more lighting for anything other than low light corals. The Watts per gallon rule has lots of problems with it but it is a decent guideline as long as you understand there are more things involved here than how many watts does a specific coral need. First figure out what your long range plans are (what corals you might want to keep 2 years from now). The answer is probably those colorful SPS corals. If so then get a combination lighting system with MH (metal halide) and either VHO or PC. If budget is a problem get the VHO or PC now and add the MH later. Just make sure your canpoy can except MH (it needs to be more than 6" tall to allow for room between the bulb and the water). The one thing you want to avoid is locking yourself into a PC hood that cannot except a MH bulb later when you have more money and want a wider variety of corals.

 

[beth]

What is the price for the PC? And compare that price with what you might be able to buy online. This might be a determining factor when deciding what you want to get now and whether you might want to change it out completely later. It would be nice if you could decide where you are going with this hobby now, but, if you can't then get what is reasonable to you now. You can sell it later. If you're like a lot of long-term hobbyists, you'll be setting up more than 1 tank down the line anyway
PC lighting will certainly meet your needs for what you want at the moment, though I think the "looks" of the tank lighting won't be as esthetically appealing as it would with VHO lighting. I'd suggest you check the various lighting types in your area's LFS and see what appeals to you--since light intensity is not necessarily a priority at this stage, you might want to consider esthetics rather than light intensitiy.

 

[rhomer]

Just built a DIY hood with the setup from ahsupply.com. This was easy, and a class act setup. I put in two 55w pc fixtures in my hood for $65. The bulbs will cost about $50. This will contain two 10000K bulbs.
I currently have two NO blue actinics, that when the bulbs burn out I will replace that fixture with two 175W MH these will cost $75 dollars per retro kit, and two bulbs $75 dollars per bulb from aquaticlighting.com. After adding up the cost between starting up a VHO system and a MH system the price was negligible.