How much light?

[Hazmat]

What size tank are you asking for?
And what type of light's are you planning to get?

 

[OscarCichlid]

Small tank, just 10 gallons. I am planning on putting an anenome in with 1 or 2 blue damsel's. It is my first Salt tank and want to start off with something easy like Damsels.

 

[Great Lakes]

175W metal halide.

 

[Hazmat]

You could also do 1 power compact which would be allot cheaper. 10 gallons is vary small IMO to put a metal halide.

 

[FrankSlapperinni]

A 10 gallon is a little small for an anemone. especially if you have damsels. the damsels wont have to much space to escape from the anemone and anemones need absolutely perfect water, which would be very hard to maintain in the end.

Considering what it'll cost for an RO system, live rock, lighting, skimmer, salt, and everything else, the cost of upgrading your tank to at least 29 to 55 gallons in negligible.

 

[AttackKoala]

I don't think you should go with a 10 gallon tank. Mininum beginner size for marine is 40 gallons. Smaller is VERY difficult to keep alive. I know people see them in thier LFS, but it really is NOT a good idea. Go with a larger tank.

Wattage per gallon is 3-4 watts for auto-trophic corals etc.

This holds true no matter the shape of the tank.

 

[superman]

I don't think you should go with a 10 gallon tank. Mininum beginner size for marine is 40 gallons. Smaller is VERY difficult to keep alive. I know people see them in thier LFS, but it really is NOT a good idea. Go with a larger tank.

Wattage per gallon is 3-4 watts for auto-trophic corals etc.

This holds true no matter the shape of the tank.

I strongly disagree

So you are saying that I can get away with the same 225 watts whether I have a 75 gallon long tank which is only about 1.5 feet high, or a 75 gallon hexagon tank that is almost 3 feet high. This watts per gallon rule is way too vague to be mentioned when trying to keep coral, which actually needs a specific amount of light to survive.

 

[Great Lakes]

Precisely why I said the Halide folks.

Wattage per gallon rules really don't exist in the coral world. They need a minimum amount of intense light no matter what size tank.

And the cost of a 175w MH is not too much more than a good pc setup.

GL