Lighting for saltwater...

[newsecret7]

What kind of light do you recommend for saltwater tanks? The pet store people recommended one called "marine-glo" and it just looks like a blue light... I don't know if its any good and its not very bright. Suggestions please? Thanks! >^.^<

 

[beaver8888]

depending on what your keepinmarine glo is good it does reefs and its a blue sptrum light i guess its good i dont much about marine setups but i would think this light would be good but it depends on what you got in the tank if you dont got reef i wouild not spend the extra money cause i think it costs alot more for that

 

[sinasster]

If all you have is simple florescent tubes, your probably dont have enough light. but not knowing your set up the marine glow is good for fish only tanks, as long as you have enough bulbs for your tank. But i would go with a few 50/50 and an 03 actinic

 

[wayne at home]

What do you want to keep. I thomk marine glo's are ok , but they're really not strong enough for many inverts. Flurescents are ok for fish, shrimp, dark water inverts tho'.

 

[saltwatermolly]

how big is your tank from fish and live rock-to-sps corals you want 3-6 watts per gallon

 

[newsecret7]

Its a 46 gal. and right now I only have 19 lbs of LR, I'm going to get 50 more soon, though

 

[saltwatermolly]

you would need 140 watts - 240 watts depending on what you want to grow

 

[Gills]

When I had my SW tank set up I used atanic (I think that is how it was spelled) blue and white lights on it and it gave it a nice look. But I used them because they were recomended to me by my fish supplier.

 

[saltwatermolly]

that is close on spelling.. actinic.. {i looked it up}. you want at least 50/50 of blue and white although you can run all actinic the white light it for our viewing pleasure most inverts that need that light for photo, is at 30-60ft deep there is no white light that deep

 

[sunray]

don't you need metal halide for reef (live rock and live sand, with fish and inverts) aquarium ??

 

[supahtim]

your wattage should be 4-5 watts per gallon (i think). the actinic is good to grow the coralline algae on your live rock. metal halides are the closest thing to actual sunlight, so they are the best kind of lighting next to power compact fluorescent bulbs. the halides do heat up extremely quickly though so you need a few fans on your hood or by your lights if you don't have a hood. basically the more watts the better.

 

[sinasster]

You really need to tell us what kind of lighting you have as the wattage is much more important than the spectrum of bulbs used. Also consider that the lighting is gonna cost you a couple hundred dollars.

 

[wayne at home]

I'm going to ask again, what are you keeping , want to keep, how deep is your tank. You get the lighting you need for the creatures you want. It's possible to have to much light as well as too little.
Also the intensity of your light needs to be matched by the spectrum. If you want to keep shallow water sps or clams you will want metal halides with a spectrum of about 6500 K (like daylight ) to get the best results, if you want to keep stuff from 30 metres then you don't need halides, compacts, VHO or the new T5's will do it, and as blue light penetrates water better you might go to a mix of 12000 K and actinic (very blue) bulbs.
So you can't just say what lightsdo I need for a marine tank? - it's like saying what single food is good for big animals - you need to be more specific about the animals