Son's New 55g - Lighting question

[capbarrow2]

We just set my son up with a new 55 gallon tank, 48 x 12.5 x20, or something like that, LOL. The tank is completely cycled (all readings 0 except the occasional nitrate spike) and has about 70 lbs of live rock, 40 lbs of live sand. My question is, he wants to have zoos and mushrooms, I don't do coral so I have no idea here, and want to know if this lighting will work for them. Current light set up is 2x 420 Actinic at 15 watt, 2x HIO 18K T-8's 20 Watt. Are these lights good for his zoos and 'shrooms or should I bit the bullet and spend the money to upgrade him to MH's? Any input on this would be greatly appreciated, as like I said I have a fish only setup which runs with similar lights and everything is going GREAT.
Thanks in advance.

 

[big]

That is not very much light. As apposed to MH, I and many others I am sure would say to "bite a less expensive bullet".. The new T-5 light systems are wonderful and cost far less in most cases than MH too. Just Google T-5 lighting. One thing would be to go with a good name brand with reflectors. I just upgraded my PC's with a Nova Pro 6 bulb unit for my 72 Bow front reef tank for just over 300 bucks at "The Doctors"... Good luck with your -sons new tank..... BTW, with a 6 bulb system like this your son- you could keep almost anything in the 55, and you-him will learn to love the corals- clams you could them have too!!

Warren

 

[big]

Ohhh....... By the way welcome to the site and obsession too!!!!

 

[shinobi9119]

Originally Posted by big
That is not very much light. As apposed to MH, I and many others I am sure would say to "bite a less expensive bullet".. The new T-5 light systems are wonderful and cost far less in most cases than MH too. Just Google T-5 lighting. One thing would be to go with a good name brand with reflectors. I just upgraded my PC's with a Nova Pro 6 bulb unit for my 72 Bow front reef tank for just over 300 bucks at "The Doctors"... Good luck with your -sons new tank..... BTW, with a 6 bulb system like this your son- you could keep almost anything in the 55, and you-him will learn to love the corals- clams you could them have too!!

Warren
yea t-5 nova's r good lights.. i have nova extreme, they r nice. Try and get one with individual reflectors. good luck. I hope you enjoy your corals.

 

[m0nk]

Go for t-5's, you can get a Current Sundial T-5HO system for about the same price as a PC fixture for that tank and the T-5 bulbs will have a much higher output at a lower wattage, plus they have individually contoured reflectors. Basically you'll be able to keep most types of coral under the thing. This fixture also includes 2 timers, one for the actinic and one for the daylight, and a quiet fan will run as long as one of the two is on. It also has LED moonlights that are white but it includes the blue filters so you could do either color. I have one on my 20L and can't say enough good things about this fixture.

 

[lecithin]

The sundial is very nice, its not a true individual reflector but the timers and lunars are great additions at a good price. If you want a little more power go for the Nova Extreme Pro, 6 bulbs, individual reflector.