What Watt Light

[black molly3]

what watt light would i need for a 6 UK GAL tank what i hope to put polyps in shrooms ect.
thanks

 

[1entra]

What are the dimensions of the tank? If you only plan to keep zoo's and mushrooms etc then they do not require much lighting so any of the following may be adequate:

Clamp on light

Arc Pod

Overhead Illuminaire - may be too big but depends on size of the tank

Small compact light - could ask to buy seperately

 

[Musho3210]

seeing that 60 watts incandescent supposedly equals the same amount of light as a 11-14 watt fluorescent, i dont think watts is a good way to determine light.

 

[black molly3]

wil that 11 watt clip on lamp be enough for polyps and shrooms ect. thanks for that information its realy helped me out


sorry the dimentions are L12" X backwards 11" X H 14"

 

[black molly3]

the tank i have is an aqua 320 and it already has an 11 watt light. will this be ok for zoa's and shrooms ect. what other corals would be ok with it.
thanks again

 

[1entra]

What is the klvin reading of the light? I think the 11w should be ok for both zoo's and shrroms, you could also get something like a few small feather dusters in. But there is anough colour variations of shrooms and zoo's you can just keep differnt colours and fill the tank up with them alone. I wouldnt really risk anything else as it may not survive!

You should look into differnt livestock like small shrimps and gobys etc also possibly a few colourful algaes!

 

[black molly3]

ok i will do thanks. how much live rock would you recomend since i am not haing a sump as the tank is too small.
also would all of these be ok
http/www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Di....cfm?pCatId=675
http/www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Di....cfm?pCatId=686
http/www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Di...cfm?pCatId=1861
thanks again.
also the reflector above the light isnt too good. to maximise the light coming from it how can i make a home made reflector

 

[dilbert]

I have a 60 liters (15 US gallons) tank. The height is 12". The open top tank came with a 15 W fluorescent tube that looks very dim (no real reflector, only an alu case). I added a 11 W lamp similar to those Arc Pods that looks brighter. This lamp is fixed above my zoanthids that are on a piece of live rock sitting on the sand bed.

The timer of the 11 W lamps starts almost two hours later than the main 15 W lamp, but all polyps show up in the morning even before the 11 W spot lamp comes up.

I followed the rule of one pound live rock per one US gallon tank volume and I am happy with with only two powerheads and nothing else.

To the reflector:
What kind of lamp is it?
For fluorescent tubes there are aluminium reflectors in the reptile section of some pet shops from GBP 5 to 9. Our tortoise has such a thing.
Otherwise it can be difficult to get the right shape.

 

[Lynden]

For mushrooms or palys (which can easily be fed directly) not an enormous amount of light is needed. I'd say a couple of, say, 13 watt power compacts will cover them just fine. Maybe get two of those clip-ons.

P.S.
Watts per gallon is a rather poor way of determining light intensity. It can be very misleading when dealing with small tanks as the amount needed to equal the brightness of a larger tank will be proportionately much higher.

 

[Musho3210]

wil that 11 watt clip on lamp be enough for polyps and shrooms ect. thanks for that information its realy helped me out


sorry the dimentions are L12" X backwards 11" X H 14"

no problem sir, i hope you have a great day.