30 gallon reef tank lighting
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There is a bulb that accomadates both, the only corals that kind of corals you would beable to get is the mushrooms. If you just have a regular tank you can buy a glass hood and they sell light fixtures for many sizes of tanks that contain both (Daylight bulb & actinic) It just depends on if you want to spend the money on that kind of light fixture.
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Another lighting question
I'm still doing research :? and of course still confused..... how the heck did you people learn all of this???? :shock: Not sure if we can mention brand names here or not so slap my hand if we are not supposed to. I am planning on buying a 115 gal that is 48" long and 35" high. I don't want to buy lights and then find out I am limited to what I can/should put in the tank. Because it is so high---do you recommend MH lights? I saw a pretty cool deal at aquarium-supply.biz that looked like a combo.. It had 2 MH lights, 4 "other" lights (pardon my ignorance here--2 were blue and it looked like 2 were purple). They were OuterOrbit brand and they had little 'legs' that clipped to the tank so that there was some distance from the lights to the water. This setup looked pretty good to me but would like to know what you think of this sort of set up for a 35" high tank.
Many thanks
I'm still doing research :? and of course still confused..... how the heck did you people learn all of this???? :shock: Not sure if we can mention brand names here or not so slap my hand if we are not supposed to. I am planning on buying a 115 gal that is 48" long and 35" high. I don't want to buy lights and then find out I am limited to what I can/should put in the tank. Because it is so high---do you recommend MH lights? I saw a pretty cool deal at aquarium-supply.biz that looked like a combo.. It had 2 MH lights, 4 "other" lights (pardon my ignorance here--2 were blue and it looked like 2 were purple). They were OuterOrbit brand and they had little 'legs' that clipped to the tank so that there was some distance from the lights to the water. This setup looked pretty good to me but would like to know what you think of this sort of set up for a 35" high tank.
Many thanks
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The general rule of thump is 4-5 watts per gal. for reef and 1-3 for fish only. If you stay within those limits you will be just fine.
Quote(the only corals that kind of corals you would beable to get is the mushrooms)O.K this reely did not answer my question.Im not sure what a actinic bulb does? You mentioned having a glass hood with light fixtures hanging above? This sounds a little extreme for me. With a glass hood you wood see all the condensed water and salt creep on the hood and i wood have a massive light fixture above my aquarium. Cant i just buy one speicial fluresent bulb that will fit the average hood?
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Yes, Many, if not most aquarium corals contain within their tissue the symbiotic algae called zooxanthellae. It is these zooxanthellae that require light to perform photosynthesis and in turn produce simple sugars that the corals utilize for food. Therefore, the simple answer to light is to provide enough to maintain a thriving population of zooxanthellae in a corals tissue. In practice however, this can prove to be a very complex issue. If you don't provide the proper lighting needs the corals will became bleached. If that happens you can save them, but the chances of survival is low.
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You should be fine with placement on the sand if you wish. 
But you do need a actanic and a 10,000k flourescent.
But you do need a actanic and a 10,000k flourescent.
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I don't know if this is a dead topic but as I didn't see anyone just jump and out say what you should think about getting, for a 30cube that might be used for anything I'd recommend one 250W MHQIDE pendent with a 14K Pheonix bulb if not supplementing with another source of actinic be it PC or T5. You would be able to grow all the SPS your little heart could ever desire. You could grow out any nice clam or anemone you wish. Currently I'm running, 13.3 w per gallon over my 75g. I'd shoot for around 200w or so of PC lighting to really bring out Zoas and Shrooms if you go that route. the nice thing about PC bulbs and softie/LPS tanks is that it is very eay to set up different bulb combinations to find the one that works best. 2 10K grow bulbs and 2 dual spectrum actinics or 20K's would be a nice set up. 4 cords and you could do a number with your timers and adjust the brightness all day long.
I hope that was a little more straight forward.
I hope that was a little more straight forward.
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The whole topic area looked dead Blue, Just looking to stir up some trouble and some excitement in here. Nice to see you again. Hope you don't go reporting me to the mods again like you did yesterday.
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OFF topic,
Oh wait you are the moderator....
Oh wait you are the moderator....
caferacermike-pendent light are extremely expensive-You need a expensive balast-you need the expensive fixture-you need the expensive bulb-and not to mention the electric bill mom would get in the mail
I think in my case pendent lights would not be suitable-a actanic bulb with a 10,000 k should be fine for what ill be growin in there
I think in my case pendent lights would not be suitable-a actanic bulb with a 10,000 k should be fine for what ill be growin in there
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Bud in my opinon 1.8 wpg is barely enough for a softy tank. Heck my 7g nano has 9wpg. You will be seriously limited to what you can keep like GSP, clove polyps, xenia, kenyan branching, zoas and mushrooms. It would be difficult to claim a 30g reef tank without some nice specimens of lps or sps. At least consider an Odyssea fixture from my friend matt, www. thehobbypalace.com I have a nice 130w PC fixture over a 20g planted that might pull it off for you. My friend uses the same fixture with one 12k bulb and one 20k bulb over a 20g reef. He can't grow SPS nor can he keep a clam but he has a few LPS like torches, frogspawn and hammers.
One note about lighting. It is the single most important thing about your reef tank besides clean water. It isn't important in any other tank besides a freshwater planted tank. Proper lighting is what makes your coral grow and what keeps it alive. Most coral is photosynthetic meaning it lives from the light you provide. So I cannot stress enough that there is no such thing as to expensive lighting. If you shop around you'll be pleasantly surprised. I can turn up used fully running 150w pendants for about $80 all the time. that really is not super expensive. Also a little 150w pendant will not eat up your electric bill. think about it, you should be thinking of at least 210w to fully support a nice SPS or clam collection. 200w running 8 hours is only 1,600w or 1.6kilowatt hours. Around here a kilowatt runs about 10 cents. So your 150w halide would cost about 15 cents a day to run. or about $5 a month. PM me and I'll link you to a calculator that will estimate the entire cost of your tank for you, you can show that to your mom. I won't link from the site as it is to another site and I noticed admin doesn't approve of that.
I'll even offer to help you find a reasonably priced pendant.
Never buy undersized lighting. As your tank matures and your interests change you will only be limited by your lighting demands. Why pay twice or threee times when you can get it right the first time? I started out with flouros, trashed em. Traded up for a 2x 150w MHQI 2x 200w PC fixture. It seemed great for about 6 months. I then got frags from a friend that died. He came by and laughed at my lighting. I went ahead and bought another system, 1000w total. Now everythign is awesome. That is on a 75g. I would have had $800 to spend on corals and fish had I not wasted my time buying underpowered lights.
One note about lighting. It is the single most important thing about your reef tank besides clean water. It isn't important in any other tank besides a freshwater planted tank. Proper lighting is what makes your coral grow and what keeps it alive. Most coral is photosynthetic meaning it lives from the light you provide. So I cannot stress enough that there is no such thing as to expensive lighting. If you shop around you'll be pleasantly surprised. I can turn up used fully running 150w pendants for about $80 all the time. that really is not super expensive. Also a little 150w pendant will not eat up your electric bill. think about it, you should be thinking of at least 210w to fully support a nice SPS or clam collection. 200w running 8 hours is only 1,600w or 1.6kilowatt hours. Around here a kilowatt runs about 10 cents. So your 150w halide would cost about 15 cents a day to run. or about $5 a month. PM me and I'll link you to a calculator that will estimate the entire cost of your tank for you, you can show that to your mom. I won't link from the site as it is to another site and I noticed admin doesn't approve of that.
I'll even offer to help you find a reasonably priced pendant.
Never buy undersized lighting. As your tank matures and your interests change you will only be limited by your lighting demands. Why pay twice or threee times when you can get it right the first time? I started out with flouros, trashed em. Traded up for a 2x 150w MHQI 2x 200w PC fixture. It seemed great for about 6 months. I then got frags from a friend that died. He came by and laughed at my lighting. I went ahead and bought another system, 1000w total. Now everythign is awesome. That is on a 75g. I would have had $800 to spend on corals and fish had I not wasted my time buying underpowered lights.
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To bad I was writing out my last reply when you said you didn't want much coral.
Anemones are off your list. They must be kept in good lighting. Sorry it's just how it is. The only low light anemone is the aptasia anemone. You might pull off a majano but those are not the types you are looking for. Anemones are primarily a photosynthetic animal. They rarely eat anything. Anyone feeding them anyhting larger than mysis shrimp are ony polluting their tanks. It has been proven time and time again that they spit out large fish and shrimp pieces late at night while you are asleep. It has been proven that most can be kept without supplemental feeding under high lighting conditions.
Anemones are off your list. They must be kept in good lighting. Sorry it's just how it is. The only low light anemone is the aptasia anemone. You might pull off a majano but those are not the types you are looking for. Anemones are primarily a photosynthetic animal. They rarely eat anything. Anyone feeding them anyhting larger than mysis shrimp are ony polluting their tanks. It has been proven time and time again that they spit out large fish and shrimp pieces late at night while you are asleep. It has been proven that most can be kept without supplemental feeding under high lighting conditions.
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