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rudy
08-02-2005, 02:05 PM
My tank is new so I am not going to attempt this for quite some time.

I have 108 6 foot by 18 inch tank. My original thought was a FOWLR tank however my wife really likes the corals and wants me to get a few at least. What kinds of corals are realtively easy to keep? What kind of things should I look for and most of all what kind of lighting will I require?

I do not want to blow the bank on lighting so pretty much looking for a minimum acceptable to grow corals with.

Thanks a lot.
mr_alberta
08-02-2005, 02:13 PM
Is 18" the height of the tank? Do you like to DIY? You save a lot of money that way.
rudy
08-02-2005, 02:14 PM
18 is the width. I think 20 is the height.

DIY will work. I got some time to make it right.
mr_alberta
08-02-2005, 02:27 PM
You may consider a trio of 175W metal halides...the cost difference isn't too much between MH and VHO/PC and you'll get longer bulb life and a more versatile lighting setup.

JMO.
rudy
08-02-2005, 02:32 PM
Can you explain? Are those the hanging fixtures?

Where do you get them
mr_alberta
08-02-2005, 02:42 PM
No, they are not a hanging fixture. I assumed you were mounting lights in a canopy?

What you would need is:
1x6' reflector
3xmogul socket
3x175W bulbs
3x175W MH ballasts (get these from an electrical wholesaler and wire yourself)
Saltysteve
08-02-2005, 02:51 PM
I agree, go Metal Halide. The only way you will break the bank, is by buying another light because you will only upgrade to MH later!
Invigor
08-02-2005, 03:09 PM
I agree, go Metal Halide. The only way you will break the bank, is by buying another light because you will only upgrade to MH later!

so true :D
blood_hound
08-02-2005, 03:32 PM
I agree, go Metal Halide. The only way you will break the bank, is by buying another light because you will only upgrade to MH later!

so true :D

yeah I agree... Since I had a first hand experience in breaking the bank just for lighting.. I have to change lighting set up 3 times first I had PC then I want more coral so I go with T5 lots of it then I want more corals so I have to upgrade to MH which I should have done in the first place....

So just go with MH since you'll never knew what will you want in your tank in the future.
Invigor
08-02-2005, 03:33 PM
and if you go MH, you can "upgrade" from that when it's time to change bulbs. Since you have to buy bulbs anyways, you can just add in a few new ballasts and do 250w later in life and the rest of the hardware is already wired in.
SeaHorse_Fanatic
08-02-2005, 03:52 PM
I must agree with the rest of these Canreefers. Started with NO, PC & T5s & now going with 175w MH over my main reef tank. Tried to save money at the start & ended up spending more than I had to because I kept wanting to keep nicer, more colourful & more light demanding corals & clams.

Learn from our mistakes. Go MH to start.

Anthony
DanG
08-02-2005, 09:33 PM
Ditto, if I knew then what I know now, I'd have spent the extra hundred bucks on MH instead of PC.
hockey nut
08-02-2005, 11:04 PM
I concur with the above posts. :smile:

You may want to look at buying used as well if DIY is a hassel. There is a broad range of corals you can keep with MH , as well as pc's etc but MH seem to be the lighting of choice if you can get it.

I used pc's in my first tank and I felt limited to what I could keep. So the new tank got MH and I haven't looked back.

PCs are great for a fish only tank with some mushrooms and some polyps and the odd lps and leathers etc but may look nicer under MH and if you like a larger variety I would go with the MH. It also depends on what kind of fish you want to keep as well.

Some fish munch on corals and are not coral friendly. You may want to look into that aspect as well.


JMO :biggrin:

Cheers
Pegasus
08-03-2005, 02:23 AM
It appears only the MH fans have answered this post. :lol:

I run VHO's over mine and replace them about as often as these guys repalce thier MH's. If you do a search of the Internet you can find articles on the differences between MH and VHO's. These articles will tell you how much each costs to setup and run. Then decide what kind of corals you want to keep and buy for them. Typically however, you are looking at a minimun of 4 watts of power per gallon just to keep most corals.

Larry
StirCrazy
08-03-2005, 02:38 AM
It appears only the MH fans have answered this post. :lol:

I run VHO's over mine and replace them about as often as these guys repalce thier MH's. If you do a search of the Internet you can find articles on the differences between MH and VHO's. These articles will tell you how much each costs to setup and run. Then decide what kind of corals you want to keep and buy for them. Typically however, you are looking at a minimun of 4 watts of power per gallon just to keep most corals.

Larry

a lot of the replies have been from the people how have had a bunch of different lighting. I have spent over 5000.00 on just lighting my self, starting out with NO then overdriven NO , then VHO and PCs, then small MH and finally 250 watt MH HQI's

would have saved 4400.00 if I just went to MH in the first place.

here is a thought, why don't people stop looking for the minimum lighting they can get away with and instead look for the maximum after they decide what they are going to keep. sure you can keep softies and some LPS successfully under NO's but they do better with VHO or PC's. and they even do fine with MH. look at the ocean, do we only see soft corals in 50 feet of water or more? nope we see them in the reef flats along with the SPS and others and the sun is actually more intense than our best lighting. like anything any coral can be adjusted to brighter lighting with good success but a coral that needs bright lighting won't survive with little lighting, so it all comes down to where did they collect that sps, lps, or softies as they can be found in any area in any lighting conditions.

my recommendation is to decide what you want in the tank, if it is a mix, then set your lighting for the most light demanding species you want to keep.

but a lot of the recommendations posted here are from people like your self who didn't know what you get as lighting info is still relatively new and there wasn't much info a few years back. so we started with the cheapest and ended up getting more and more until it was "why didn't I do this in the first place" type of thoughts. I have zoo's and mushrooms in my tank that are more stunning under my MH than they were under any other lighting I have had, and like other corals they are capable of getting there nutrients from their algae also. so even mushrooms that are dull or brown under NO lights will expel algae and expose there colors under intense lighting.

also lets try not to use "watts per gallon as a measurment of lighting as it means absolutly nothing unless we are talking about the exact same type of lights on the exact same diemntion tank. to show my point if you have a tank that is 4" deep but huge in the other dimentions and it is 40 gal or you have a tank that is 30" deep and smaller in the other dimentions but still 40 gal a 40 watt light will produce 1 watt per gal on each tank but you can see the quality of light on the bottom is going to be a totaly different thing and while you might keep corals deicent in the 4" deep tank the ones in the 30" deep tank will probably die.

ok done ranting for today :mrgreen:

Steve
Ruth
08-03-2005, 03:40 AM
GREAT POST - and ...............it saved me a bunch of typing because I went through the same thing - well except the overdriven part. Go with MH. The more you learn the more you want to keep and if you are like most reefers that I know the more light demanding species you will want to keep. It will save you money at the end of the day.