I know this is a very inexperienced question but... regarding reef tanks what is considered low light, medium, high? in watts/gallon.
lights
- Thread starter biogirl361
- Start date
So i am figuring that if I use CF, the most wpg I can fit over my tank is around 5.7. what kind of things can I keep under that? supposing I were to pay more and get VHO instead to give myself more options of what I can keep... how many wpg do I need to keep the small stony corals? I know you're just estimating, that's fine 
another thing, is it possible to have too much light... so that it would actually be detrimental to some kinds of the soft corals?
stephenray75 said:
I don't have one yet because I'm still in the planning stages/trying to research everything before buying anything. But... I was planning on a 29 gallon. that seems small enough to handle as a beginner tank (plus its gonna be in an apartment) but large enough to allow room for a good selection of livestock once I get the hang of it.
Ive been wondering the same things, and am in the planning stage as well...for a 125 or hopefuly larger. Im leaning toward metal halide with pc or vho for actinics. Most of the corals Ive studied so far require low to medium light, but might consider stonys later which all seem to require more intense light. So Im looking for suggestions on a setup that would let me keep most anything I may be willing to keep, as Ive read that really intense light can be detrimental to some softies like mushrooms. Some of this can be overwhelming at times, but I cant wait to get started.....just hate spending money on something (lots of money in the case of some of these light setups) and realizing later that I should have gotten something else.
My honest recomendation--start with metal hallide. I started with a Fish Only, NO fluorescents. Moved to VHO when I decided I wanted more inverts. Added more VHO. Finally bought MH and have the VHO for actinics. Wish I'd started with the metal hallide. Would have saved some money, and had more success initially.