What light is right?

[baseballman25]

Hey all, I am currently starting off with a 58 gallon tank and i really would like to put an anenome in there with a nice clarki clown and possibly some hard corals, but my friend told me that for soft corals you only need power compact lighting and thats what this tank comes with but the more research ive done on the anenomes you need strong lighting so what should i do to incorporate the right environment for anenome and some hard corals. What kinda lighting?

 

[artie1209]

There are many variables to your question. First you need to establish what you are going to put in the tank. Anemones and hard corals do not mix well. usually the anemone ends up moving around and stings your corals. Leathers, mushrooms, zoos are tougher and will fair better in a tank with anemones. Also some anemones need more light than others. In general, if your tank is deeper than 24 inches you will need MH lights. In the 18 inch range t5, Vho and PC are usually OK. Usually you are looking for 3-7 watts per gallon. Hope this helps.

 

[bennyhill]

If you want to keep anenome's and exp hard corals you need good lighting very few anenome's will live in low or pc lighting..... t5 t12(VHO) MH would be best.
Hard corals need high lighting

 

[reefiness]

best lighting IMO is MH 10k with t5 or VHO actinics

 

[afboundguy]

I've kept an anenome under PC for years with too much success... It keeps spliting and it's annoying, one day I'll have 1 anenome and the next I'll have 2or 3. If you're going to do fluorescant lighting go with T5's over PC's, T5's run cooler and as long as they have indv reflectors provide more than enough light.

 

[mrmaroon]

I just upgraded from PCs to T5s. The T5s are running much cooler. I am able to keep my canopy lid down. Part of the difference is that the unit has a built in fan, but it still seems to by much cooler anyway. If you are going to have a canopy, I would go with the T5s. Also with T5s, you can start with softies and then switch to sps down the road. I don't think PCs give you that option as well.