Watts per gallon is wrong

[jedimaster]

Remember that fish and corals do not know the ohms rule. Hence watts matters not. A better rule would be lumens per inch of water. I don't know what it should be but thats what people should be using. for example
a single 110 watt VHO Flor will put out say 2,000 lumens but four 40 watt NO flor lights will put out far more light even though its only 10 more watts. and a 100 watt MH will put out slightly less lumens than the NO but more then then VHO. however the light that comes off an MH will penetrate deeper because of the wavelenght not the intensity.
Anyway my 160 gallon tank will have eight 40 watt NO bulbs, 2 will be actinic blue and the rest will be 18,000k lights.
As far as I know the best lighting for a reef is a mix of MH and NO actinic.
The watts per gallon for lighting is a throw back when tanks were all the same depth and size and the corals were very easy to care for. Use it as a guide only. If you want a high light required coral then put it close to the top(thats where it would be in nature) and under the brightest part of your tank.
thats all from me.
btw the lumen numbers were made up I couldn't remember what they actually were.

 

[twoods71]

Yea I've read many articles on this type of subject and its always the same.
A MH bulb will still out do NO, VHO, or PC bulbs but not by much.
I dont believe the MH hype.
In fact one of my favorite LFS kept all there corals under PC, and VHO lighting and they always looked great. They switched to MH on several tanks a few months ago and now about half the corals they keep under the MH bulbs look like crap with the exception of one of there show tanks witch has a combination of MH and VHO.

 

[burnnspy]

I wouldnt use a LFS as a guide to reef keeping. They are typically reef ignorant.
If you wants to see spectacular corals check out a coral farm. Guess what lights they use to raise the most colorful corals and clams?
BurnNSpy

 

[junkf15]

Jedimaster-
Have you read through the thread "watts per gallon" with 21+ replies? I wrote a comprehensive discription of LP/SF and propose it takes the place of the Watt/gal rule. I think it is agreed that watt/gal is not useful, the trick is finding a replacement. I can repost my thread here if you want. Just let me know.

 

[twoods71]

JunkF15, I 've been reading that thread also. Some good stuff in there.
I agree with Burn that using a LFS as a guide may not be the best thing at times.
But if you check them out and probe them for knowledge you will know who is good and can be trusted and who is no good and who's advice should be taken with a grain of salt.
I have many LFS in my area and the one mentioned in my post above kept the most beautiful corals around with one guy working there in particular that has enough knowledge about reef keeping to write a book. People would line up and wait for help from this guy including myself.
They still have 1 decent sized tank there that houses corals under PC lighting and they all look great. At least there is one tank I can still buy from. In fact I recently purchased a very nice hammer from there a couple of weeks ago.

 

[axolotl]

hi. I've only done fish before, and I want to learn more about the inverts, and what my lighting choices should be for a standard all-glass 29 gallon tank. Can anyone help me out here? When i bought the tank, I purchased a twin tube flo. fixture. It has two 40 watt bulbs, one actinic and one 10,000k bulb. I also had a single bulb striplight (30 inches, also 20 watts) from a previous tank that I put on there, and that has a 50/50 in it. I read both lighting threads and know now to avoid the "watts per gallon" taboo, so I'll phrase my questions carefully Is this enough, or should I think about buying a VHO bulb? MH is probably not practical for a 29 gallon tank. Any feedback would be much appreciated.

 

[junkf15]

axolotl-
The only thing tht determins your lighting requirements are the animals you want to keep. The lighting you discribed would work for a FO or a FOWLR tank no problem. If you want to make it a reef, you will need to determine what corals you want to keep, then figure out your light requirements based on thier needs. For example, I decided that I wanted to keep several different anemones, a flowerpot coral (Gonipora), a porties coral, a Plate coral, Cand cane (Caulastrea) coral, a few leathers, and many different Pocillipora corals. The later of which drove my lighting requirements. The Pocillipora needs such strong lighting, I chose 2x250 watt MH. If I didn't want several of those Pocillipora corals, I could have gotten by with much less expensive lighting. There are some mushrooms and other low light corals that could survive under your current lighting, but for any of the more desirable colorfull corals, your going to need to upgrade. I would chose VHO over PC lighting if I wasn't going to go with MH just because I think they look better, but I have read on this board equal numbers of people who have had success with PC, so it is personal choice I think between the two. I don't think your going to find critters that require one over the other between those two. There are several critters, like the Pocillipora coral, that require the power of MH lighting. So pick your corals first, and then build the lighting they need.

 

[axolotl]

I'm really just interested in soft corals right now. Do you know of any good mushrooms or low light pacific anemones?

 

[car guy]

hey jeid i hope you don't plan on keeping corals, they will ALL DIE, with less than 1 watt per gallon you cant even keep low light stuff, but with the light you don't have you can keep sponges