nah2o
New Member
Hi all,
I am new to keeping reef tanks but not new to the saltwater hobby, but I am hoping I can get some help here. I will be setting up a 40 gallon reef tank pretty soon and am totally confused about what type of lighting I will need. Of course in the past I have have a 75g FO tank with a very few pieces of live rock and have just used actinic blues, daylights, and 50/50 to light the tank.(on the insistence of the LFS; he even told me it was easier to use CC). Needless to say I am going with a 40, a mixture of LS and aragonite and also LR. The big question is "what do you intend to keep and I can give you suggestions on lighting." I plan to order uncured rock from Tampa Bay Saltwater, and I have heard that this rock already contains a lot of cool stuff like sponges, mushrooms, tunicates, a few coral, etc. Being new to reef keeping, I will first just try to keep those things alive. I've seen tanks with just the rock they get in the "package" from Tampa Bay and it's awesome, so I won't start going out and buying a lot of stuff on my own right now; I'll try to maintain what I have. I am so naive to the light thing that I thought I could buy a couple of VHO bulbs and fit them into my regular strip light that came with the aquarium. Very informed (after reading a lot on the hobby) about the care and upkeep, but not so informed on the lighting part, probably because there are so many options. These are the dimensions of my tank: 30 x 18 x 20. (same as a 29, but deeper). Maybe someone out there has a tank with similiar dimensions and could lend some great advice.
Thanks in advance!
I am new to keeping reef tanks but not new to the saltwater hobby, but I am hoping I can get some help here. I will be setting up a 40 gallon reef tank pretty soon and am totally confused about what type of lighting I will need. Of course in the past I have have a 75g FO tank with a very few pieces of live rock and have just used actinic blues, daylights, and 50/50 to light the tank.(on the insistence of the LFS; he even told me it was easier to use CC). Needless to say I am going with a 40, a mixture of LS and aragonite and also LR. The big question is "what do you intend to keep and I can give you suggestions on lighting." I plan to order uncured rock from Tampa Bay Saltwater, and I have heard that this rock already contains a lot of cool stuff like sponges, mushrooms, tunicates, a few coral, etc. Being new to reef keeping, I will first just try to keep those things alive. I've seen tanks with just the rock they get in the "package" from Tampa Bay and it's awesome, so I won't start going out and buying a lot of stuff on my own right now; I'll try to maintain what I have. I am so naive to the light thing that I thought I could buy a couple of VHO bulbs and fit them into my regular strip light that came with the aquarium. Very informed (after reading a lot on the hobby) about the care and upkeep, but not so informed on the lighting part, probably because there are so many options. These are the dimensions of my tank: 30 x 18 x 20. (same as a 29, but deeper). Maybe someone out there has a tank with similiar dimensions and could lend some great advice.
Thanks in advance!