Lighting??

[mpal]

Hello,
I am about three weeks into setting up my first tankIt is a 180 with 45lbs of lr in it so far. I plan to set this up as a fish only with live rock and possibly a sebae anemone sometime down the road. What would be sufficent lighting for my situation? Right now I just have the lighting it came with in there.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

 

[fshhub]

good luck, anemones are tricky, and need very intense lighting
IMO, they are very delicate creatures, and have a lot of special needs, i also reccommend no one(especially rookies) attempt to keep them, it can become very upsetting because they don't live long in tanks(don't believe what you hear, esp. at your lfs), very rarely are reefers successful, eventhough they believe they are because a couple of months for an anemone is far from success, 5 years would only be a start, and i have only heard of a few that have made it past a year(barely)
as for any other advice, my first thing i would do is get @ 15o or more lbs. of lr, cycle it and then add a dsb(deep sand bed), before going any farther
HTH and good luck

 

[tykill]

you need more rock first. How many watts is your light and how many does it hold? Three weeks just isn't enough time to cycle a tank. Trust me, I rushed it and killed four fish in the process. I now take my time.

 

[mpal]

I guess I will skip the anemones for quite some time then.
There are two 36" strip lights with two bulbs in each. Each bulb is 30 watts. Do you think that would be okay with a fowlr. I do plan on getting another sixty pounds of rock. Does the tank cycle everytime I add rock even if it is cured? I was planning on adding about 20 pounds everyother week or so. Or should I just bite the bullet and by it all at once?

 

[lettheirberock]

i would suggest you use the search option at the top of this page.theres so much info out there, it would be hard to fit in one post.i'm sure you'll get a load of info if you use the search.

 

[slb243]

The lighting you have will work OK, but your tank will look nicer and the fish and live rock will do better, in my opinion, if you get more intense lighting. I recommend metal halide lighting. You'll get the most light for your money. You've made the right decision not getting the anenome. I've had 2 die and I'll never get one again. Good luck