40 breeder vs 65 gallon

[DCDeacon]

I bought my son a 40 breeder to do a small setup (thank you Pixar). Anyway, I had planned on doing TBS live rock with a few clowns, blenny, maybe a tang (40 too small?), and inverts. I have a Coralife dual-strip power compact light (192 watts).

Here's my question. Would it be ok if I took back the 40 breeder and got a 65 gallon tank instead in terms of lighting, particularly if I ever get to the point of adding a few soft corals or BTA? The length and width are essentially the same (they use the same size stand and canopy).

Is the extra 8 inches of depth going to cause a problem with the lights I have? If not, I think I'd rather go with the larger tank just to get some additional gallonage (is that a word) and make the tank more inhabitable for a tang and maybe another fish or two?

Any help or comments greatly appreciated.

[ben72227]

i'm guessing that you're talking about the Coralife Aqualight Compact Fluorescent Strip Lights? and im guessing it's 36"?

right now, you have about 5 watts of light per gallon. if you get a 65gallon then that goes down to about 3 watts of light per gallon. Usually, 3 - 5 watts per gallon is recommended for corals, anemones, and other reef tank inverts.

as for your depth question, anything deeper than 18" probably needs metal halides (for the anemones, reef inverts. etc.)

Tangs need at least 50 gallon tanks, and most of them need large tanks, like 125 gallon + (or about 6 feet long). however, there are a few exceptions - the yellow tang (Zebrasoma flavescens) *may* do fine in a 65gallon provided that you give them grand amounts of TLC and *feed them good*

It needs a varied diet high in beta-carotene and vitamin C, and low in protein matter. To maintain its bright coloration, however, it must keep to a strict herbivore diet to prevent fading. Therefore, the diet of the Yellow Hawaiian Tang should consist of dried and frozen herbivore food that contains marine algae, and vegetarian items such as Spirulina, zucchini, broccoli, leaf lettuce, and dried seaweed.

and have live rock.

[DCDeacon]

Thanks Ben. I had a yellow tang for several years in a FO 55 gal. with a WD. No LR or LS. Did very well until I had to break the tank down and give it away before I moved. I don't think I realized they needed that much space.

One question, when reading either Concencious Aquarist or tje Simple Guide to Saltwater Aquariums, one of the authors talked about PC lighting and said that the 192 watt rating is misleading and is actually higher because of the nature of PC lights versus other lights. True, not true?

I think, given my lighting, I may stick with the smaller tank since it will allow more options from a soft coral/anemone standpoint. We'll just have to make do with fewer, smaller fish.

[OrionGirl]

PC lighting provides better depth penetration than NO lights, and will work fine for the 65. You'll be able to support most medium to low light critters just fine.

I would encourage you to NOT get a tang. They really need tanks that are at least 6 foot long in order to thrive.

[mogurnda]

After ordering and reading the Simple Guide, I have found there are a few misstatements in there. The one about "watts/gallon not applying to PC lighting" is one of them. PC lights put out about 20% more photosynthetically usable light per watt than NO.

In my opinion, you may just want to put the more light-hungry corals near the top of the rockwork. The lower areas will probably be very nice for things like mushrooms.

Once you get yourself cycled, and are thinking about a few frags, drop me a PM. I am pretty cleaned out after WAMAS, but can always scrounge a little Anthelia.

[DCDeacon]

Thanks. I had sort of decided not to do the swap, but if you guys think I'll be ok if I just place the more light-hungry stuff closer to the top, I may try to do it anyway.

I'm not planning on doing much coral in this tank anyway, but if I got some LR from TBS and it has stuff on it that needs light I didn't want it all to die off because the tank is too deep for my light.

I guess I will pass on doing any kind of tang.

morgurnda, thanks for the offer. I may take you up on that. I'm sure it'll be a couple of months before I reach that point anyway. I did take your advice and joined WAMAS. Looking forward to the first meeting. And I too noticed some misstatements in those books. I found it particularly humorous that in Cons. Aquarist he talks about NOT doing bio material in a W/D reef tank, but his picture of a 55 gal reef tank clearly shows a W/D with bio material in it. :)