LIGHTING FOR MY 45 GAL?

[dmjordan]

i just picked up a 45 gal tank and i want some lighting input. at most i would only do softies in the tank with some fish. the tank is 36" long, 12" deep and 24" high. would 4 39 watt t-5's with individual reflectors be ok or am i limited to just a f/o tank unless i get mh for this tank also.

[Grins]

Those lights would give you plenty of options in my opinion.

[dmjordan]

wasn't sure because the hight of the tank. how deep will useful light penetrate with the t-5's. though it was only like 18" but not sure.

[Grins]

Archer here would be better able to answer how deep they could penatrate, but even if not to the bottom you'd have options for putting the more light demanding stuff at the top.

[dmjordan]

guess i can play with coral placement if i need to. thanks

[archer772]

Well a couple of questions first. Will you be running a snad bed if so will it be a SSB or a DSB, also what ballast will you be useing and also what bulbs did you have in mind to use. With a spec or workhorse ballast the par values will start dropping fast at 17-18 inches but with a IC ballast you will get 2-3more inches. My tank is 24 inches deep with about a 4 inch sand bed and I have LPS's in the sand bed along with a Crocea clam and all is well, I also have 2 Maxima clams about 1/3rd of the way up off the bottom and they are doing fine. I did have a GE Starcoat in the area where the clam is to help with some extra par, just so you know the GE Starcoats are the PAR monsters of the T-5 bulbs. T-5's will have about 4 times the usable light at about 18 inches of water depth depending on your T-5 setup

[dmjordan]

was thinking about 2 of these retro kits...only because they stock them at my lfs and i can get a 30% discount on them there.
http://www.hagen.com/hagen/uk/aquatic/glo/GLOT5_LightProg5_EN.cfm