Watts per gallon???

[perchpsk]

Ok, lighting question?
As a rule of thumb how many watts per gallon are recommended for different corals?
My new reef tank will have either 5 watts per gallon or 9 watts per gallon depending on how much I spend on lighting.
I intend to keep green star polyps, hammers, xenias, yellow polyp rock, mushrooms, and maybe a clam or anenome.
With those corals, I think I should be ok with 5 watts per gallon, but is there any general rule of thumb you guys use for different corals?
Something like:
soft corals 4 wpg
anenome 5 wpg
clams 7 wpg
hard corals 8 wps
etc???

 

[viper_930]

My rule of thumb: never use the watts per gallon rule. There are too many variables and factors for that to be an accurate way to determine light intensity.
What size tank tank will you have?

 

[andretti]

Yeah, I agree with Viper. Let's say I have a 6 watts per gallon ratio, but my tank is 20" tall and the next guy has the same 6 watts, but his tank is only 16" tall. :thinking: One would think that 4" is not a big deal, but when those light spectrums have to travel through water (which molocules are very tightly bounded) it's very difficult. :notsure: So, like Viper said, it depends on your tank dimensions. If you want to keep a large variety of corals & anemones, you can keep the ones that need less light (soft) under ledges and the ones that need more light (stoney, clams) up higher on rocks and closer to the light source.

 

[sprang]

ditto on the above. I'm glad there are people that understand spectrums and intensity of the light travel to the different depths of the tank. To your question, it sounds like 5 watts should be fine for your soft corals on a p.c., but I'm sure you'll need halides for the clam.

 

[perchpsk]

My new tank is a 55 gallon 18" is the heigth. The lighting will sit about 3-4 inches above the water an i intend to keep most corals at the mid level of the tank.

 

[nativemic]

what kind of lights are you looking at pc, vho- or metal halides because that will make a big difference also

 

[perchpsk]

The lighting is 260 watts of pc and 220 watts of VHO. The other thing I am considering is putting together 400 watts of Halides with 220 watts of VHO, but I dont wanna spen the extra money if I dont have to...