original lights

[crazy4reefs]

my question.
on my tank right now i have a 110 pc light with 2 u shaped 50/50 lights, every thing seems to be doing fine but i want to add more light in the future. i was wondering if for now i should also use the light hood that came with the tank. i put 1 50/50 6000k and 1 10000k lights in it will this help any ?
i have a 46 gallon bow tank with
yellow polyps,greenstar polyps,button
polyps,bubble coral,plate coral, finger gorgonian
and some brown and green mushrooms.
sorry about the long post, any help would be appreciated. thanks sue
oh also does anyone know what watt the light strips that come with the tank are.

 

[heavenly damsel]

I did that for a while, just put a 50/50 bulb in it for additional lighting. It worked well for mushrooms and polyps. HTH

 

[slick]

I don't know if your light strips are like mine but the ones that are on my freshwater tank have a sticker on the back that have the wattage on it. Or flip it over and there will be a small round ignighter type thing. I'm not sure what it's called but you can take it out and that will also tell you the watage. Make sure your bulbs have less wattage then the ignighter or they won't turn on. If I'm wrong please feel free to correct me.

 

[crazy4reefs]

thanks for the replies. slick you were right on how to find the wattage, they are 30 watts. but i was wondering if it would be beneficial for my corals to run original lights(along with my pcs) with 1 50/50 and 1 10000k or will it just be a waste of electricity.
again i would appreciate any replies
also this is probably a stupid question but the light strip holds 2 florescent lights and has 2 of the ignighter fuses that slick was talking about. each say 30, so is all the lights together 30 watts or 60 watts ? thanks again sue

 

[slick]

My quess would be 60 watts of total power. Now on the subject of corals. I think it would help them out a little but I'm not sure on how much and if it would be enough to justify running them all day.

 

[osakamy]

For all the light, nothing better than mh light. I used to use the 10,000k and 20,000k light but the coral bloom are limited but when you use mh the coral look so beautiful. If you intend to take reef tank only, I think metal halide worth to invest in.