lighting

[JJ1234567]

I am selling my nano cube and getting a 30 long for the time being. the question is this. I have an opprotunity to buy a orbit powercompact fixture that has 384 watts of light. It is a great price and a one time deal. Should I go for it, or do you think 12 watts a gallon is a bit excessive?

 

[steelhealr]

Seems toasty to me...sounds like a lot..but..I've seen people putting 400 MH's above their nanos. SH

 

[JJ1234567]

well thats true. Its an orbit powercompact. Comes with 4x 96w bulbs (2x dual daylight, 2x actinic). Does anyone know about these fixtures? could I take out the 96's and put in 65w's for the time being, until i get my bigger tank?


I couldnt say no. I bought it. A 460$ fixture for 250$ with free shipping...my future wife is no longer speaking to me, but she will get over it soon enough.

 

[j0rzeh]

Make sure you keep inverts that req high amounts of light and you should be ok i think its alittle over the top 6W per gallon is alot never mind double.

 

[JJ1234567]

I upped the tank size to 40 tall, to bring it down to a more manageable 9 watts.

 

[Riley]

Still a bit high, but definately better then 12 watts

 

[Navarre]

I never use the watts per gallon rule as i find it very inaccurate.

While the advice might be fine for a beginner with no other place for information, this will of course help them establish some form of workable lighting over the tank I still find it inaccurate.


lets say you have a 40 gallon system and the tank is 1ft high.. you could get away with compacts to keep most corals IMO.

Lets say you have the exact same volume tank (40 gallons) only the tank is now 3ft high (thus a tall narrow system). Even though its the same body of water, you simply wont penetrate 3ft of water with compacts. 400w halides are needed at least even though the water volume is small.

Therefore i always recomend that you get the most powerful lights you can afford and after this you can then see what corals you are able to keep. Rmember its far easier to create shaded areas in the tank for lower light level corals than it is to increase ligting levels for more hungry corals.