Lighting For A Salt Water Reef Tank?

[lil mermaid]

hello all,
I currently have a 5ft tank thats housing some tropical fish which i intend to transfer into a 4ft tank in preparation for a Salt water tank which eventually will be upgraded to a "hopefully" reef tank. I realise i need a good size filtration system which im going to get
Aqua One 2200L/H
A skimmer
Power head
UV sterilizer
Substrate
Hydrometer
Heater

If im forgetting something please advise me
I'm hoping to eventually introduce a reef setting which I believe I need special lighting for. Could anyone direct me to a link which provides info of this and how expensive is it, if i read correctly it could cost between 800-1000 bux and cannot affort to throw away this money to light up a coral reef setting. Ur help and advise will be much appreciated

 

[KRZYSZTOF]

T-5 HO LIGHTING E-BAY B)

 

[KRZYSZTOF]

You will need liquid test for PH AMMONIA NITRITE NITRATE CALCIUM PHOSPHATE ALKALINITY KH and GH

 

[bobf]

hello all,
I currently have a 5ft tank thats housing some tropical fish which i intend to transfer into a 4ft tank in preparation for a Salt water tank which eventually will be upgraded to a "hopefully" reef tank. I realise i need a good size filtration system which im going to get
Aqua One 2200L/H
A skimmer
Power head
UV sterilizer
Substrate
Hydrometer
Heater

If im forgetting something please advise me
I'm hoping to eventually introduce a reef setting which I believe I need special lighting for. Could anyone direct me to a link which provides info of this and how expensive is it, if i read correctly it could cost between 800-1000 bux and cannot affort to throw away this money to light up a coral reef setting. Ur help and advise will be much appreciated

Rather than asking folk more open questions, better to ask them on your other thread as you seem to be inviting comments on the same stuff...

Previous thread

 

[wflash3]

well, the general rule is 3 watts per gallon. But may need more if your planning on keeping clams of some sort. Remember that the bigger the tank, the much more expensive lighting a reef tank is. It is very hard to find what u need for lighting a reef aquarium for cheap. also what i seemed to notice is that in Power Compact lighting which is the cheapest, you usually pay 1 dollar for every watt. keep that in mind, good luck

flash

 

[Matty P]

For reef tanks T5 and atinics are the best.

 

[n3ont3tra]

well, the general rule is 3 watts per gallon. But may need more if your planning on keeping clams of some sort.

3wpg for what? SPS, LPS, mushrooms, clams? As far as I know, there's no general wpg rule. Also, more than just clams need higher lighting. Anemones come to mind, and so does acropora and other SPS corals.

To find out what lighting you need, it's best to find out what type of corals you want.

 

[Lord_Dante]

http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...p;rd=1&rd=1

Thats what I just bought. It seems good enough for me to dabble. Not sure if it will do for advanced Corals but I'm doing a Nano Reef to practice everything before I buy my huge reef tank

 

[wflash3]

well, the general rule is 3 watts per gallon. But may need more if your planning on keeping clams of some sort.

3wpg for what? SPS, LPS, mushrooms, clams? As far as I know, there's no general wpg rule. Also, more than just clams need higher lighting. Anemones come to mind, and so does acropora and other SPS corals.

To find out what lighting you need, it's best to find out what type of corals you want.

when saying 3wpg i was trying to cover most coral. I am under 3 wpg and hold many corals and they are all doing great. SPS and clams certainly need more. There are some anemones that dont need to much lighting if u you feed them enough. Just telling lil mermaid something she can go on.

flash

 

[n3ont3tra]

when saying 3wpg i was trying to cover most coral. I am under 3 wpg and hold many corals and they are all doing great. SPS and clams certainly need more. There are some anemones that dont need to much lighting if u you feed them enough. Just telling lil mermaid something she can go on.

But you can't really say 3wpg covers most coral. It depends on the depth of the tank, coral placement, and tank volume.
Say you had a 20g long tank (30 x 12 x 13" tall) and a 10g high tank (16 x 8 x 17" tall) and you wanted some SPS corals. You would need much more light for the 10g because it's much taller.
Another situation: you had two 10g tanks and you wanted some leathers in there. In the first tank you put the corals on the bottom, in the second you put them near the top. In the first tank, it would be better to have stronger lighting because the light has to penetrate deeper.