What lights are the best deal?

J

jackie dh

Guest
I'm setting up a small tank, a 26 flat back hex that is 36" long and 16" deep including a 3 inch sand bed. I want to have a couple of Zoo's, and a few mushrooms and a seba anemones or two. Nothing to difficult.
What would be a good light for this tank? HO, VHO, T5, power compacts or MH? I would prefer to not go with the MH because of the heat and the fact that they can be expensive to run. And as always, I want to get the most for my money.
 
anonome

anonome

Active Member
Power compacts would be fine......until you said you wanted the sebae. I'm afraid that MH is the only option here. If you wanted a BTA then the pc would work just fine. I have had one under power compacts for almost 2 years that has done very well. It moved up high in the rockwork, sebaes like the sand, and gets all the light it wants. Here is my Rose bubble tip anenome.
 
J

jackie dh

Guest
What other kinds will do well with the PC? And corals with the PC? Man I wish that there was some place local to buy my corals and anemones, there's one shop but she doesn't have much and they are HIGH!
 
steve24

steve24

Active Member
with PC light you can keep things like shrooms, zoos, soft corals and about any of the LPS corals...
here was mine a few months ago before i got my T5s, this was my 55 with just the PC lights ...

steve
 
anonome

anonome

Active Member
JackieDH, I have different types of leathers, sponges, all types of mushrooms, zoas, paly's, polyps, frogspawn, fox, torch, meat, kenya, colt, and macro algae....halimeda. I had a brain that did well, except my heni butterfly decided it was tasty, so I sold it. Keep your perameters up on your water and the lights on 12-14 hour cycles and you will do just fine.
 
J

jackie dh

Guest
I've got a double light fixture that has two large 30 watt bulbs in it. One is a white Atinic and I can't remember what the other one is right now except that it said "super" in it. I'm not at home or I would go look and see what it is. It's bright as all get out, but I'm not sure if it's enough. :thinking:
 
J

jackie dh

Guest
I have a 30 watt voltarc ultralight and a 30 watt white atinic. Are those lights going to be enough to keep any thing that I'm wanting? It's really bright and I have about 40 pounds of live rock, so most of my critters would be fairly near the surface. Just hoping here!
 
fishfreek

fishfreek

Active Member
No, its simply not enough light to sustain most corals besides maybe mushrooms. IMO, I would opt for eighter t5 or VHO if i were you. The t5s are very efficient and offer a wide range of bulb spectrum choices. I feel VHO has the very best looking 03 actinic available on the market and seem to really make my corals "pop" with color. As far as PC goes, i have used them a few years ago but shortly switched to VHO. They are not an efficent source if lighting and color choices aren't that great, also bulbs can run well over $30 each for 96w bulbs thast last only 12 months tops. HTH
 
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