PC lighting and LFS ...

[ren]

I have a 125gl tank thats almost ready for coral now but need better lighting. One of my lfs's said that all I need is a 4 bulb 4' pc setup for 200 bucks that would be plenty for a reef?!? Think he said that it was 180 watts. This seems low to me so I asked him about the wattage and 4-6 watts per gl as I've read and he said then I need to supplement it with 400 watt NH's?!? Is this a case of a gimme money LFS with little concern of how they are equiping you?

 

[hondo]

The important thing is do it right the first time. PC lighting is OK but if you want to keep a wide range of SPS (and eventually you will even if you think you won't now) then you need MH (Metal Halide). Don't put too much into the watt per gal rule as all tank dimensions are diffent and shallower tanks get by on less light than deeper tanks. A good lighting set up for a reef tank is a mix of MH with VHO Actinics (though PC actinic 03 are very good also). I wish I had done this when I set up my reef as I now have just PC lighting and realize I need MH (I can add the MH but I would need to remove two of the PC fixtures which end up being wasted $$$)