33gal lighting

[Riley]

I currently have a 25watt "Actinic spectrum marine glo" lighting my 33gal tank. I wish to put corral in my tank some time..but I have heard that I need atleast two light bars..but then again I have also heard that the marine glo is good enough for some tougher corals so I need some help with this..thank you

 

[Sean_Buckley]

25W in a 33 gallon is less than a watt per gallon, and I think I've heard that soft corals need about 4 or 6 watts per gallon, but I'm not sure.
Sean

 

[Salt Freak]

Well I do know that the marine-glo is an atinic 420 posphor that means that your tank is going to be pretty blue with it on. I have the same posphor on one of my tanks along with an atinic white 12000K and have success with LPS corals but the lighting is probaly not strong enough for SPS and the LPS probaly really needs the stronger lights like halides. but all my mushrooms and polyps are growing super fast. And I do like the way those combination of bulbs add a blueish tint to the water. And really makes your corals shine do to the atinics. And really the watts per gallon doesn't really apply but into the planted tanks.

 

[Riley]

Sorry I kind of got confused over the last reply..I can see that another light bar would be better,..but I don't really want to keep alot of and hard to care for corals. I just want some nice little tough basic ones that will be fine in the tank. I would also like to maybe buy a small type of anenome.

 

[Salt Freak]

That is the type of lighting you use to keep soft corals like mushrooms, and polyps. if you wanted to keep the hard ones than you would need the halides. Or i'm not sure about this you could get by, by this bulb to. but you really should get to bulbs.

http/www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod...7&N=2004+113350

 

[Ed4567]

Sorry but the anenome is unsuitable- they grow too large and have high lighting and water quality requirements. Personally I would get at least another fluoresant light or better yet two for corals.

 

[Riley]

yeah im looking into buying another twin lighting hood soon..but how can I control the algae? cause with all that light I can imagine that alot of algae wll be produced

 

[superman]

If you are keeping up on your water changes, and doing water changes with RO water you will be fine, if you start getting algae everywhere then you are not keeping water quality up to par and need to resolve the issue.

 

[sammydee]

I think two normal output tubes will not give you enough light for even softer corals. You will need to jump up to T5 or PC, or try and squeeze three or four tubes in there. You could of course try overdriving

 

[superman]

He'll be able to keep some mushrooms and some leathers in the upper half of the tank, but that's about it.

 

[Riley]

Well since I allready have that single bar right now, when I buy the twin strip bar I can put the single strip on there aswell If I have room.I hope! and then I would have 25 more watts..it might not be an insane amount but every little bit helps