"Regular Lights" on a Reef tank

[kev]

I was wandering if its possible to use the "regular lights" that people use in their house, for their tank. These lights are much cheaper and have VERY high watts. This may be a stupid question but it doesn't hurt to ask! What do you guys think?

 

[ags]

what do you mean "regular lights"? NO flor. are "regular lights" found in a house with the exception of the bulb. Your bathroom has NO flor. and some houses use MH to light the outside.

 

[kelly]

I would not recommend regular lights. I am assuming you mean the type that fits in a lamp(incandescant). Wattage is not the answer to reef aquariums by itself. You need the proper light spectrum, and intensity. Many people refer to WPG, but forget to tell you the WPG without the right spectrum, etc., will not work. If it did, we would all have the best lighting possible with regular light bulbs.
I hope I did not come of too blunt. Try some good VHO, MH or PC lights. If you are only keeping softies, then some 10,000K and Actinic fluorescent bulbs will probably surfice.

 

[kev]

Thanks for the replys, and yes I mean't the bulbs for your everyday lamp. I'm new to reef lighting and thought I may be able to do it this way. Now I realize that I need the correct spectrum and intensity. Now I have another question. There is this lighting system called "Smart Light" at my LFS, it will fit on the top of my 24in tank. It has a total of 65 watts for this particular system. I will have room for another light(not sure which type to get). The extra light that I get, and the "Smart Light" system would bring me to around 85 watts. I understand thats enough light for my 20gal tank, I currently have this single ballast fixture, and I plan to upgrade the bulb. Have any of you heard of the smart light system, and what bulb should I replace the exsisting bulb with?

 

[kev]

?

 

[algea eater]

where i come from (israel) you cant get vho for reef,only mh which are way to expensive,or high itensity no flos.went to a few good shops in my area and they all say a 200 litre tank 100cm*50*40( + - 55g) can grow corals with 4 or more flos 2 actinic 2 10000k or higher.and saw their 55 gallon tanks full of coral using only no flos,their bigger tanks use mh lights.the coral in all the tanks look healthy and are wide open.even at garf.org their tanks start off with no flos and only after a couple of months they switch to vho.

 

[ags]

rule of thumb with lighting, 3-5 watts per gallon of water can run most corals. You can run NO lights with some soft corals (leathers, colts, mushrooms and some polyps) with less light. I have a 55 with only about 85 watts. I have above mentioned corals and they do fine but that is about what you are limited to. Sorry never heard of smart lights

 

[fishfreek]

I use one CSL 96w smartlite on my 45g. I like the blue they cast at first but this color seems to fade after a few weeks. (this is the only bad thing i can say about these bulbs) In addition to this light i run one NO 30w coralife actinic bulb. This really helps the deep blue color i like. You can always do what i did in your tank too, just use the 65w smartlite and a 20w actinic bulb. This will give you pretty good light IMO. All depends on what color tempature lighting you like. HTH

 

[kev]

Thanks for the replys, so im gonna go with the 65W smartlite and the 20W Actinic. I have a couple more questions. Is there a certain kind of actinic I should buy or is it just a plain actinic bulb, and what types of soft corals would you guys reccomend for a newbie at reef keeping? Would I be able to keep any of the SPS corals with this lighting?

 

[joe's reefer]

i my corals are fine with my lighting but im trading in the flourescent for 36 watt pcs.believe or not the 36 watt pc are stronger than 50 watt flourscents

 

[algea eater]

hard corals are hard to keep no matter what type of lighting,and in the tanks with no flos there were hard corals for example i saw a healthy brain coral and other types not only soft

 

[fishfreek]

I like coralife NO actinics. They are a deep "true" blue actinic, these are usually found in 1-1/2"(t-12) size. I've also heard that zoo med actinics are also the same deep blue color but are 1" (T-8) bulbs.
Its true that 36w of pc are probably equal to something like 50w of NO.I add them strictly for the beautiful flo color they give off.IMO, they make your corals look great!

 

[blackdog]

I have a setup similar to what you propose. I have a 55 gallon with a 4 foot long SmartLite fixture (2x65 watts) and a 4 foot NO flourescent (40 w) with a CoraLife "TriLux" bulb, which came with the tank. The SmartLite puts out a greenish blue light, and the NO has a reddish-purple cast, so it evens out to a nice "clean" white light that I like. However, I'm thinking of trying a 10k or 20k light in my NO fixture to try a more bluish look. The SmartLite puts out the spectrum the tank needs, so the NO kind of works as a way of "adjusting" the color of the PC lighting.
I have only soft corals in my tank, and they appear to be doing quite well. Xenia, sea mat, and star polyps are thriving. But I have no plans to add anything that requires more than moderate lighting.

 

[byrself]

hey IV:XX
i noticed you said you have a sand dollar. that's cool. i thought about those a while back, but noticed they don't ever sell them anywhere. seems to me like they would be cool for a tank. got any more info on them, like what they eat and stuff like that?