would this light be suitable for a 55 gallon for anemones and hammerheads and frogspawns its 250 watts so a high watt tank is 5 watts per gal so 5 x 55=275 so 15 watts of pretty good i think...........but i am a newby soo you help me http://portland.craigslist.org/yam/for/1392889502.html
I am a newby I Need help choosing a light fixture
- Thread starter Jack1243
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Compact Floro fixtures are not really that good for reef tanks and a little overkill for fish only tanks. You could do softies with that light, but for only $50 more you can get a nice Nova Extreme T5HO fixture that will give you 2-3x more light than the fixture you linked to and you would have no problem with hammers or frogspawns with the T5 light.
In my opinion 5WPG is a little on the low side. !0 -12 WPG is a well lit tank. You should have little trouble with growing anytrhing with that ratio. As always I purchase with the notion that any lighting system will grow with me.After all you don't want to upgrade tank size and not be able to have equipment grow with you.
Watts is quite possibly the poorest of measures for quantifying light for a reef tank. Watts is a measure of power consumed, not the amount of light generated. A 250w metal halide will do far more for coral than 250w of power compacts / compact fluorescents.
The fixture linked above should be fine for the corals you listed in a 55g. As for anemones, that depends on the lighting needs of the type(s) you want to keep. I can see some being just fine, while others may not be.
The fixture linked above should be fine for the corals you listed in a 55g. As for anemones, that depends on the lighting needs of the type(s) you want to keep. I can see some being just fine, while others may not be.
Over a 55g, there would be 2 metal halides (one over each half) and neither would be near enough to the center brace to melt it. Unless restricted to a short canopy, halides (or any light for that matter) can be placed at whatever height is needed for them above the tank. Increased height off the tank comes with advantages and disadvantages, it's simply a matter of balancing them to get the results you desire.
Nonetheless, my mentioning of metal halides was more for reasons of why watts is a poor indicator of light quality. Although, there are anemones that would do far better under MHs than the number of T5s that can conceivably be placed over a tank as narrow as a 55g.
Nonetheless, my mentioning of metal halides was more for reasons of why watts is a poor indicator of light quality. Although, there are anemones that would do far better under MHs than the number of T5s that can conceivably be placed over a tank as narrow as a 55g.