Lighting ?

[pwrmacG4]

I have a friend of mine who has a 50 gallon tank that is 30x12 footprint. he need to know how strong of lighting he needs to have a reef tank.. he wants to have corals and such in there.

appreciate the help.

Ken

 

[Cichlid-Man]

How deep is the tank? I assume those measurements you gave are the length and width right?

 

[Lotus]

Are you sure it's not a 29g tank he has? 30 x 12 is the standard footprint for a 29g.

 

[pwrmacG4]

it is 36x15x20" high

sorry.. I should have known that.. I had a 29gal that was 30" across.. dah

 

[vipers]

i think the rule of thumb for reef is 5-7 watts per gallon of water for a reef setup...so for a 30'ish gallon tank 200watts would roughly be adequate.. correct me if im wrong

 

[Joe Fish]

The rule for watts per gallon doesn't always work with saltwater. You have to consider light intensitity as well. This would also depend on what type of coral are going to be kept. I would stick to either a T5 or Metal Halide fixture. A power compact fixture would work, but I'd recommend one of the other two.

 

[Lorna]

The reason Joe is suggesting this is that some time down the road you may want to introduce higher more intense light requiring corals and better to spend the money now rather than need to upgrade later on....

 

[BalaShark]

The reason Joe is suggesting this is that some time down the road you may want to introduce higher more intense light requiring corals and better to spend the money now rather than need to upgrade later on....

I agree with Lorna. a 250W MH will do the trick.

 

[S.Reef]

T5s all the way. Halide would be fine too

 

[pwrmacG4]

cool.. thanks alot. the one he is looking at is a 380w metal halide. appreciate the help!

Ken

 

[Lorna]

380w halide? Must be a 250w with pc actinic supplements? probably 2 x 65 pc.....sounds like a good mix and will let you keep just about anything you want

 

[pwrmacG4]

thanks Lorna.. much appreciated!

NE Indiana huh.. I am in NW Indiana..

 

[pwrmacG4]

I was thinking on setting up my 29gal as a saltwater tank.. Lorna.. you have one I see.. is it hard to maintain one that small?

 

[Lorna]

no not really, it actually started as a 10g quarantine......then sort of grew. Smaller tanks are okay but need more careful monitoring and water changes as parameters can go out of whack really quickly on smaller water volumes.

Yes Ft. Wayne. check out our club site.... FIREWORM's TANK