lighting

[tamicase]

Help

I have been told a bunch of differnet stories on what lighting is required for my saltwater tank and i need to know what i do need.

I have a 125 gallon saltwater tank and it is set up for a reef system but i am not sure of the type of lighting requirements to have.

 

[dbacksrat]

metal halide- the most expensive, but the most effective...most tanks come with standard flourescent lighting--i think u want anywhere from 5-8 watts per gallon (anybody else know if those numbers are right?)

 

[aresgod]

yea thats sounds about right depending on what you plan on keeping
Brahm

 

[wayne]

No watts per gallon are a bit of a random guess. You need to decide what you want to keep, and in how deep of water. IF you want to keep very high light corals in 18 inches of water you'll need powerful halides, but if you want to keep low light easy corals in a shallow tank you might find fluorescents just fine. But saying n watts per gallon is not a very sensible way to think.
I have had to move an acropora frag I got DOWN in the tank as it was getting burnt by my fluorescents. How can this be - most people only keep these under 250 or 400 watt halides. Well I was stupid enough to put it in only 3 inches of water, and about 5 inches total from the tube of a T5 fluorescent.

 

[dbacksrat]

books should be able to tell u what u need (i've seen different rules for Metal Halides too, like 1 bulb per a certain number of feet)

 

[wayne]

No books won't tell you exactly what you need but they'll hopefully teach you to think about what you need. What corals, how deep water, how clear is your water, how far down will you place corals, how far above water surface is bulb, will you have a cover glass in the way?
But if you ask around with info like I want to keep coral x in 12 inches of water you'll get a lot further with a question like this. Also remember that you'll still have to feed the coral no matter how good your lighting.

 

[S.Reef]

A 125 gallon aquarium is about 22-24inches deep. I would recommend Metal Halides, VHO lighting, or High wattage power compacts. Go with about 3-5 watts per gallon.

You also have to keep in mind what corals and other invertabrates you want to keep. Mushrooms require only a few regular fluorescent tubes, but clams need at least 5 watts of light per gallon.

If soft corals and mushrooms is what you want to keep. A few VHO tubes would do the trick. Clams and anenomes...think about a metal halide system.

Sam Reef