decided to slightly upgrade my lighting.. questions

[vipers]

hello everyone! well, unfortunatly i had a catastophy and lost 99% of my fish (bluedot stingray, flagfin angel, 6-banded angel, sailfin tang, 2 clown, tigerstriped goby)... yeah, trust me, it hurt! but anyways... ive decided to start upgrading my system before purchasing anymore fish..... i got a great deal on 2 250 watt PC light setups ($300 for both setups)....i had 2 56 watt coralife t-5 fixtures before this purchase, so needless to say, it was quite an upgrade wattage wise... plus im still using 1 of the t-5 fixtures, so i have a total of 556 watts in a 150gal tank...

ok..questions..

1. what is everyones experience with pc lighting? ive noticed people have very different opinions on their rank versus other lighting..

2. for a fish only tank, is 556 watts too much? or is there really no such thing as too much wattage (within reason)

and im sure its gonna be asked.... i dont know what killed my fish... all my readings were well within safe levels except nitrates, but they were not very high.. which isnt too much of a concern in a fish only... the ph, salinity, etc were all fine......... my zebra striped eel, 1 percula clown, and my lawnmower blenny were all that survived and they are doing great.. so im lost... i know something happened, i have just not been able to pinpoint it yet

 

[Lorna]

Well prior to buying any more fish you really need to find out what happened to your others. The amount of light in a fish only tank is not important really but more of what is to your liking....

 

[vipers]

well. this time around, i plan to slowly turn it into a reef tank.....so the fish i buy this time will all be reef safe and whatnot...

yeah, ive been trying to investigate it... all of their eyes fogged over, and just died in a matter of days... but the fact that not all the fish died is wat baffles me... i mean i lost 2 clowns, but the other is doing great....

im also completely redoing my sump system again... i already got rid of all the bio balls, but now i have a 60 gallon that im putting dividers in and having a refugium, live rock, sump.... should get rid of any nitrate problems

 

[Lorna]

Well if you are planning a reef then you will need higher lighting than what you stated. You should really look into a t5 setup or metal halides as the corals will need higher light than what you have had. You need to research what the problem was with the fish. Could you have stray voltage or something got into the water. Were you doing any major house cleaning or painting or anything that could have poisoned the water?

 

[vipers]

yeah, i know ill need better lighting for a full fledged reef... im upgrading to a 240 gal. really soon.. and plan to do 2 metal halides along with these 2 setups... so i should be good on lighting...

ill have to check on the voltage thing... never really thought about that one.. thanks.... havnt donde anything that fumes would have access to the tank.. im really careful about that.. ill ask my electrician buddy to swing by and and test everything.. im sure he'll be able to check if there is any electrical current in the water