Newbie Lighting, O Please Help!

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chrisSWFL

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Aug 5, 2004
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Okay, I just read a book on starting a new saltwater aquarium, and now I'm confused about lighting. Right now I plan on running a fish with some live rock aquarium. I have a 38 Gallon tank, with a regular old single strip light. Now my friend has an aquarium with a good amount of live rock and anenomie, 50 gal tank or so, and he only has a single strip light that is 50/50, and his does fine. Now eventually I do want to add some corals, maybe go to all coral, I don't know. I have been looking at the metal halides online, but I'm confused. Right now I have a hood with the single strip light built in. What kinda of metal halide would I need, and how do they mount. Do they sell hoods for metal halide lighting that also incorporate room for my hang-on filtration? I have been looking at them online, but I just can't figure out what kind to buy, and how I would use them with a hood and my hang-on filtration. It looks to be as if they all hang above the tank? Please help my confused simple mind =)

Thanks,
Chris
 
Here is a site that has a decent chart of how much light you need with many different sizes of tanks and 3 different grades of corals, etc. They don't have the very best prices online, but they are a good guideline:

http://www.marineandreef.com/Info/lightingchart.html

As tanks get deeper, you need stronger lights to penetrate to the bottom. Metal Halide can easily penetrate a full two feet of water, while many other light types don't handle this as well.

BTW, if your friend has an anenome under a strip light, your friend is very lucky, or that anenome is eating a lot of living stuff to make up for the light it isn't getting. Normally, they tend to slowly die under all but very bright lighting and/or careful feeding.
 
Agreed, though there are many different types of anenomes that will thrive in low light setups, but they are not the 'desirable' anenomes that will host clown fish. Also, many people keep a rotating stock of anenomes, or consider them a success after a very short time period. Lots of possible explanations.

If you really want to have a variety of corals, lighting above and beyond a standard strip light will be needed.
 
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