Newbie question: What T5 bulbs do I use?
 

Hello everyone, I have a 30g bow front I will be converting to saltwater sometime in the near future. I am trying to gather as much knowledge and research before anything. So, the platform is 24 inches and I do NOT want to spend an arm and a leg for these. Since I have a smaller aquarium and will only be doing live rock / fish / and maybe some smaller inverts for the clown fish to have fun with, I found this little guy on Amazon.


I was looking for independent power switches for both of the lamps in there. Okay, ultimately I want a nice daylight. I have picked out a T5 10,000K ultra daylight bulb and heard it would be perfect for a smaller tank like mine. Now for night night, what is suggested? Do I need a actinic light, or more of a pink light? I have searched on google and cannot find a answer for which light bulb I can use for night life.


Thanks in advance!:fish:

Night lights or Moon lighting is done by using LED's. Small inexpensive setup that just creeps a small amount of light into the tank. The second lamp in the fixture you bought is for your noraml lighting. One lamp is usually 10-12k and then second is Actinic 420 or 460nm, this is the color rendering light for your tank. If you were to use just a 10k light, you tank would look yellow, the Actinic gives it better coloring.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=fish+tank+moonlight

Okay great, you are such a major help... I have one more question for you. So with more 10K lights, it would look more bright white? Because the one there has only 2 slots for lights, would it be better to get 2 T5 10K super daylights together or 1 10k T5 and 1 Actinine T5 together?

And for the original post, I think this would be a better light...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/24-T5-HO-Aqu...item3a647954e6

or

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MARINELAND-R...item53e7831e78

tell me what you think.

Well its kinda a personal thing with the lighting using those. The more white light you use the better for the corals. But if you do use an actinic I would go with a 10k lamp and a 460nm actinic.
And using the LED, thats your best bet all around. :thumbsup:

Yes, I am probably going with a Marineland LED series with the moonlight light already built in.

Thanks Reef!:thankyou::thankyou:

:thumbsup: