Lighting For Coral And Anemones

[jayphr99]

i have a 6 week old set up which my lfs says is doing fine water condition wise. i was wondering though about my lighting for corals and anemones. i have two flouresent tubes in there one white 30w and one blue 03 actinic. is this suitable for the above to be in the tank and survive well. it has a hood built on top and a reflector above tubes. if not what flouresent tubes would i need as i only have space for two. can you buy strong ones. thanks

 

[RoyalGrammaPrincessHannah]

The strongest you can get would be metal halides but it sort of depends on how deep the tank is and how many watts/gallon you would be getting. Im not very good with lighting, but with this information, someone else could answer your question better.

 

[fishyguy43]

what size tank do u have if it is a small tank maybe a 20 long or so that should be enough for some mushrooms or some polyps. it all depends on the depth of your tank smaller the depth of your tank is the less light is needed to penetrate it.

 

[Salt Freak]

A good lighting for tanks would be power compacts that would be good for every up to LPS corals and depending how big your tank is you could do SPS and some clams if you have them very high up in the water column. that would be the cheaper solution usually about 130 for 24 inch two bulbs one daylight 10,000K and one atinic 03 but if you want the glitter effects more realistic lighting and more options livestock wise then you would want metal halides generally when I set up my metal halides I like to mix match power compacts and metal halides by using 10,000K metal halides I usually use 150 watts and also use atinic 03 PCs for a good color combination and this setup depending on what your needs are can run from 200 to 800 do US dollars.

 

[Navarre]

The tank is far to young for an anenome IME. The setup needs to be at least 1 year old so the hobbiest can gain experience and knowledge etc. It also give the tank time to settle down and become more balanced and mature. Anenomes are expert only and incredibly hard to keep. They need the strongest lighting and near perfect water conditions. Sadly the more beautiful the anenomes the harder they are to keep also. I would not even consider keeping an anenome without halides either

 

[jayphr99]

thanks for your help

 

[Aquascaper]

If you're considering keeping corals then you will needd to upgrade your lighting in some way:

1) Throw your tank hood away and get an over tank Luminare with T5 tubes
2) Throw your tank hood away and get a Metal Halide Unit

Either way chuck the hood, it's too restrictive in the amount and type of lights you can have