Lighting upgrade?

[navyguy]

I have a coralife pc unit, with one 65watt actinic, and one 65watt 10k. I want my lights to have more out put, could I put higher watage pcs in this fixture?

 

[scsinet]

No. Fluorescent lamps must match the fixture's design wattage.

 

[navyguy]

What can I purchase for my tank, I want more lighting for my corals. I would go with t-5's but the problem is I have a 55g, that is 30" long. So it is hard for me to find a fixture.

 

[scsinet]

I'm not familiar with a 55g that's 30" on any dimension. Can you provide the complete dimensions of the tank? This is significant, so I'm not just asking for no reason!

 

[navyguy]

Originally Posted by SCSInet
I'm not familiar with a 55g that's 30" on any dimension. Can you provide the complete dimensions of the tank? This is significant, so I'm not just asking for no reason!
30" long 18" wide and 24" deep, I bought it so I could stack the rocks better.

 

[scsinet]

Well honestly for that tank I'd go halide. A single 250w halide would be a great upgrade, and if you buy a pendant or DIY it, not too expensive.
I recommend halide only because with the depth of the tank being 24", you want good penetration to the bottom. While I'm sure some of the T5 crowd will disagree with me, it will be difficult to stuff enough 24" T5 lamps over the tank to achieve decent penetration of 24".
With that setup, you should be able to keep anything you want. If you wanted to be sure that high light stuff like clams, anemones, and SPS would do well, you could go to 400w, but that's approaching overkill.

 

[navyguy]

What kind of actinics would I run with that?

 

[scsinet]

You don't have to run any at all. If you use 14K or so bulbs, actinics aren't necessary. They really don't help the corals anyway... it's more for our eyes than aything else.
You could load your current PC fixture with Actinic 03 lamps and use that though.

 

[navyguy]

That is what my fixture has now, I do like the glowing effect, so if I ran the MH, with one actinic that would work?

 

[scsinet]

The "glowing effect" is caused by the actinics. If you don't want that at all, then don't run actinics period, and use use a 14K halide.

 

[navyguy]

Ok, so i do want the actinics, and you recomend a 250w metal halide, what k do you recomend?

 

[scsinet]

14K. It will work well with or without actinics, but it's largely up to you. You can also run maybe 10K, but some people think that's too yellow.

 

[navyguy]

One last question, how does the ballast come in? What is needed to go with the 250w 14k?

 

[scsinet]

The ballast is usually in the form of an external box that sits someplace hidden.
If you buy a pendant ready made, it will come with all of the components you need.
If you DIY it, you'll need a reflector, a mogul socket, a ballast assembly, and the necessary cords and wires to hook them all up.

 

[navyguy]

Thanks for your help! I think I will go with a ready made pendant, 250w 14k. I will have to make something for the actinics.