My new set up

[wiggy]

After the very bad advise I got from my LFS I have now gone to another one a bit further away and this is what they recommended.

Rio 180 tank (101x41x50 cm) 55Gal / 207 Lts
Deltec MC 500 skimmer
Eheim 2215 external filter

We want to keep mainly corals and a very few fish.... what lighting do you recomend.
They gave us the choice of T5 or Hals..so which is better ???

 

[Navarre]

Nice tank! Very good size for a starting setup IMO. I have a friend with a RIO 180 and it looks a nice tank indeed. ( I have a similar tank... vision 180 and it was a great looking tank when i had it setup).

If you can afford Halides over the tank then these are best but T5s will do the job ok. With T5s you will be able to keep anyhting in tha tank, even sps (acros etc) have been kept successfully in there but you may find with hard corals like acros that they will gorw happily but they wont "Colour up" If you want acros to change into the beautiful colours then i would recomend a halide. I had an Acro in my vision 180 under T5s and iot greew very well but remained a dirty brown colour. Under my 400w Halides its not a beautiful PUrple with White polyps!

For soft corals however , a T5 will be more than enough for a tank this size.

 

[wiggy]

Can you recomend a Halide and a size....

thanks

 

[Navarre]

I would opt for a 150w halide around the 14K range.
Preferably a 250w halide 14K.
Add to this an actinic tube for either the 150 or the 250 w as well and you will have yourself a nice lighting setup for the tank. Rio 180 tanks are not that deep so a 150w might well suffice your needs. What you need to do though is compare prices and if the 250w is close in price then go for the stronger bulb.

 

[wiggy]

>>actinic tube

Is this thise blue color tubes ???

 

[Navarre]

Yup!

 

[wiggy]

More lamer questions.

These blue tubes...are they there to simulate moonlight or are they on in addition to the Hals ??

 

[Navarre]

They are used in addition to the halides.
Actinics give off a very high "K" spectrum in the blue range. Blue light travels the deepest in the ocean as all other colours tend to filter very close to the surface. This means that actinics are good at penetrating deep into a tank and give light to the creatures there.
The downside of this is that its a very precise colour and not all corals etc can gain energy from this light hence why it needs a back up of halides or T5s. Also, actinic do have a bonus of enhancing the colours of the fish and corals. If you ever see corals u nder actinics then you will find that some seem to "glow" in these lights.

By using halides or T5s with an actinic support then you get a good all round light spectrum and the colours will be greatly enhanced.

Actinics are too strong for moolight but many people use them for a "twilight" period before and after the main lights on.

For example, if the halides were on from 11am and shut down at 10pm, then i would set the actinics to turn on at 10am and shut down at 11pm.

If you want to simulate moonlight during the night hours then you can get blue LEDs tht work great for moonlight. I use a set of 5 over my tank at night and it does a great job, it allows the fish to have just enough light to see by should they feel threatened etc.