Lighting with standard Fluorescent

sal t. nutz

sal t. nutz

Member
I was thinking about going with standard Fluorescent to save some money, since all I will have in my tank is FOWLR. I was still thinking of having a lot of watts per gallon though, since it is fairly cheap. I have a 55 gallon and was going to use 4 36" bulbs for a total of 120 watts. My question is, what bulbs should I put in these fixtures? And also, would this be enough light to support things like Anemones?
 
steamboat1569

steamboat1569

Member
I would use the 50/50 bulbs. I also had very good luck with Coral-Glo 18000K flourescents. Anenomes require very intense light, I would not do this with 120 watts. Hope this helps!
 
twoods71

twoods71

Active Member
A standard 55 gallon is 48" long and would allow you to use 4 48" bulbs instead of 4 36" bulbs.
The price of the bulbs is little if any different and the 48" bulbs are 40W given you a total of 160W.
Something for you to think about if you have a standard 55 gallon.
As far as bulb combinations I would go with at least 2 full spectrum and 1 actinic. The other would be up to you on how you want the tank to look. If you want the tank brighter then another full spectrum, more of a blue look then another actinic or a 50/50 for something in between.
 
sal t. nutz

sal t. nutz

Member
Thanks T. So if I did that with the 4 48" bulbs for 160 watts, would that be ok for anemones? SOunds like that is a lot of wattage, almost 3 watts per gallon. Also, I can just get regular Electronic Fluorescent ballasts like at Home Depot right? I saw they have a single ballast that lights 4 bulbs for $29.
 
mrmaroon

mrmaroon

Member
A lot of people run around 5 watts per gallon for anemones. But you must also consider the Kelvin degrees of your light. ANd whether you weant actinic light as well. And be careful with ballast that are not designed for this type of application. They may not fully power your bulbs.
 
me-n-my-fish

me-n-my-fish

Member
I have squeezed 6 NO fluorescent's over my 55 gal. I have 4 20K's and 2 antics 03's. If you were going with just 4 bulbs, IMO I would put them on 2 sep. ballests so that one set of 2 would come on then the other set of 2. I have mine where the 2 antic 03's come on 20 min ahead of the 20k's and stay on 20 min after the 20's go off. Also buy keeping them on 2 sep ballest, if your ballest goes out, You still have some light. I got my fixtures from Wal-Mart. Like 8 bucks for a shop light. I just gutted the parts that I needed, Sockets, ballest, wires, and then trashed the rest.
With my set up now, it gives me 240 watts which gives me 4.36 watts/gal. IMO this is still NOT enuf for anonmes. If I wanted to keep them, I would have to drop some bucks for HID lighting, or VHO's at the least.
Just my thoughts....... :)
 
krusk

krusk

Member
me-n-my-fish
if ou ever want to upgrade your lighting to VHO
try here
<a href="https://www.saltwaterfish.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=13&t=000285" target="_blank">https://www.saltwaterfish.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=13&t=000285</a>
:)
 
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