Another Lighting Question....

[stella!]

Hi all!
I was just wondering how much light you lot would recomend for a rio 240, i would idealy like to keep hard coral so i know more will be needed. Can any one recomend a good brand as well?

thanks Stella!

 

[SkiFletch]

Hard corals meaning LPS (large polyped stony), SPS (small polyped stony), or both? Also what are the dimensions of your tank and are you a US, UK, or other resident?

 

[stella!]

Hard corals meaning LPS (large polyped stony), SPS (small polyped stony), or both? Also what are the dimensions of your tank and are you a US, UK, or other resident?

i was realy looking at both im also a uk resident the tanks dimentions are also 121L x 55H x 41W cm

 

[SkiFletch]

So a 4' tank in the UK growing both SPS and LPS huh? Well, IMO the only way to grow SPS is with either a metal halide setup or with a bank of 6 T5 lamps spanning the tank length (6x54watt in your case). If you went with a halide option I'd do either dual 150/175s or dual 250s along with some actinic supplimentation in the form of a couple T5 lamps or a PC lamp spanning the length of the tank. If it were my tank, I'd use dual 175watt electronic ballast metal halides and 2x54watt T5 actinic tubes.

 

[stella!]

Thanks for the help can you recomend a good halide and where i might be able to get one? Thanks Stella!

O and can any one also tell me if these would be sufficiant to keep LPS and SPS?

Bowini double 150watt twin halide with 4x T5's?

 

[SkiFletch]

Since I'm not a UK resident I cant comment on where to get them, but a 2x150 MH and 4xT5 setup is plenty of light for SPS. If nobody responds here on where to get halides, might try PMing matt or nav, they know where to get halides on the cheap