lights?

[eddieshana]

Hi, I was hoping someone could explain what kind of lights i need for a 55g tank. I am going to have coral and would like some plants. I dont know much about the kind of lights i am going to need so any info would help. Also can i buy parts at Home depot or an electronics store and build a setup myself?

 

[aaron childs]

Yep...You can buy a "retrofit kit" or get all the parts from a lighting store, etc. Depending on the corals you are doing, you are going to either need Power Compact Lighting or Metal Halide's. Power Compact is pretty expensive and Metal Halide's are very expensive, but are the most accurate to the sunlight, that you can give your tank. If you just want"basic" soft corals you could probably get away with roughly 170 Watts, but thats pushing it and your corals wont be at their true beauty they can be at. You have a medium/ sized tank ... So I m going to say that if you have a little over of 200 Watts of light, then you should be fine for the "basic" corals ... But if you are going to get many corals and many harc corals, i would look into a lot more wattage, or MH (metal Halides)
Hope that helps you a little or a lot ...
-Aaron

 

[bencc]

I would look into doing a dual 175 MH setup. I built my 250 watt Mh setup myself for less that what you would pay for a PC setup. Just go to a electrical supply store and get a couple 175 watt mh ballast and a couple mogul bases wire it yourself then buy a good mh bulb. I use a 250 watt coralve 12k and everything in my tank is growing and doing very well.