Marine Lighting

cattlegrid_79

AC Members
Mar 24, 2004
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Brighton, England
www.altereagles.co.uk
Having read endless threads on lighting (as a newcomer to SW, but experienced FW), people's opinions seem to differ greatly, so I thought i'd post my idea for the lighting on my first SW tank and let people shoot me down.

I'm planning to have a glass cover on the tank and I am building the tank surround. Therefore, my lighting is going to be built in to the design so I don't need any sort of unit to house my lights.

I'm looking at a 4'-5' tank. I was thinking of having a 4 tube system, probably T5 lights. Planning on 2 daylight and 2 actinic blue tubes.

Is this going to be sufficient for both FOWLR and a reef set-up. I am still debating whether to dive in at the deep end with the reef set-up or to take it nice and slow. (I think i know what it's gonna be!!!)

I'm not looking to keep some of the worlds finest and most difficult corals, just some basic stuff that looks good.

Any suggestions would be welcome.
 
Well there are several factors such as depth of tank, distance of light source from tank, and exactly what you want to keep. Im a big fan of metal halides, but I have not had much experiece with T5 lighting. When you say basic corals can you give some examples do you mean mushrooms and polyps or do you mean things like bubble, torch, frogspawn, or hammer?
 
The corals you mention are relatively easy to keep, assuming you have enough light. Based on what little I know about T5's, you'll have about 216 watts of light over a 4' tank. I think you also get more PAR (photosynthetically available radiation, the good stuff) per watt than PC. I think your choice of corals and light is spot on.
 
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