How much light do you put over your reef tank?
- Thread starter Batmanjay28
- Start date
I have some cheapy T5's that I use to start the light cycle in the mornings and end the evenings but my main lights that are on for about 8.5 to 9 hours a day are 175watt Metal Halides running 14k bulbs. I would prefer 250watt lights and will probably upgrade if finances allow when I build my cabinet etc.
I have a lot over mine. It isn't necessary by any means...(2) 250 watt MHs over a 55g 14,000K spectrum at the moment
Grins, do you think that 216watts of T5 lighting and 105watts of compact Fluorescent. With 10000k and True Actinic 03 blues over a 90G reef tank be good enough?
The 90G is 24inches high. If it's not what would you suggest?
The 90G is 24inches high. If it's not what would you suggest?
It depends on how you want your reef set up. Also, how are the reflectors set up on the t5s? You could deffinatly keep corals with that lighting but it might limit the layout of your reef to some extent I would say you would be ok with most soft corals, and you could place some high light demanding stonies right under the lights, higher in the water column. Clams probably wont work.
It depends on the specific corals you'd like to keep. Personally, I wouldn't recommend PCs for a 90g. When we had PCs on our 90g, mushrooms only survived near the bottom of the tank (on top of a 5" sand bed) -- they didn't thrive. Since switching to T5 HO, they have better growth and color. There's also several hard corals doing very well near the top of our tank under the five 54w T5 HO bulbs we're running (2 actinics on a normal T5 HO ballast; 1 actinic, 1 10000K, 1 12000K overdriven on an IceCap 660 ballast -- each with their own IceCap SLR reflector). We have several Acropora, some Montipora, a couple Stylophora, a Pocillopora, and two different Seriatopora and they've all been growing and maintained good color.
If you don't want MHs, T5 HO is a good alternative, as long as a suitable T5 HO set-up is chosen or DIY-ed to fit your needs.
If you don't want MHs, T5 HO is a good alternative, as long as a suitable T5 HO set-up is chosen or DIY-ed to fit your needs.
I have 2x65w 12000k and 2x65w actinics, all CF lights. They're ok, but they throw off a lot of heat. This is over a 55. I get the same thing...mushrooms and zoas do *ok* on the bottom of the tank but they're certainly not going crazy. Maybe eventually I'll upgrade, but cost was an issue when I set the tank up, so you do what you can with what you got. If cost isn't much of an issue, I'd definitely go T5HO with individual reflectors or even MH.
I agree with FSN, we need to know what you want to stock the tank with. SPS? Lots of it? Clams?
