Marine Lighting

[biggs]

Hi. New here...Great Site! So I'm looking for some marine advice. Which is a better supplement to 10K CF lamps? Royal Blue or Actinic lamps? Is 260 watts enough for a 75G? I guess a better question is what will and what won't do well with this amount of light. I could do with some detailed info as I'm not well versed in marine FOWLR or Reef tanks. Have done Marine Fish only and a FOWLR tank gone wrong many years ago and have been doing FW for many years. I'd really like to do a small reef but I'm sure this is no where enough light so I'm pretty sure it'll have to be be a FOWLR tank. I have a decent skimmer, small refugium, power heads etc. I'd like to be able to have zoo's, Mushrooms, Soft Corals, Inverts?

Educate me please!

cheers!

[Sushiman]

Welcome aboard!
FOWLR is a great way to start. If a softie tank is what you'd like you have many choices as far as lighting goes.
Just keep in mind that if you plan to go into more light demanding corals you might as well invest in the right lighting from day one or you'll end up spending double (or worse) long term.
For now, try the antinics, always a nice offset to 10k. Read, read, read & hang out here.
Cheers.

[biggs]

Thanks for the welcome!! I have two of the Coralife 4X65W units already but it's time for new lamps so I thought I'd set one up with 10K's and Actinics. I was going to do a smaller 30G to start but I like the stability that comes with a larger tank and I have a bunch of 75's in the hatchery so One is going to convert!!! I'm not wanting a large fish load and would prefer inverts, anenomes, and soft Corals for display. I'd love some halides one day but for now I'd like to keep it simple and as inexpensive as possible without sacrificing quality and tank health. I saw GrimReefers 30G reef and was amazed at what he's done with the lighting he has. Nice Tank!

Anyways any feedback or suggestions are welcome!

Brian

[christyf5]

Welcome to Canreef! Nice to see another islander :wink:

You should be able to keep most softies and some of the lower light LPS with that kind of lighting. Actinics will really help some of your corals fluoresce and look almost like they are under black lighting.

As for fish and inverts, make sure you do your homework to make sure they are compatible and everything should be fine :biggrin:

Christy :)

[biggs]

Thanks Christy!!! I'll be taking my time and doing this right. I'm in no hurry.

[hqgc]

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=27825

Some valuable info I received...

[biggs]

I've been meaning to update this thread forever. The 75G that I started with very quickly turned into a 185G with the 70G becoming the sump! Also....So much for a FOWLR tank!!! Funny how that goes :lol:. Anyways I eventually turfed the CF's and went to Halides. I built the stand and canopy which houses two 400W Mogul 20,000K Coralvue's and two 165W Super Actinic 6ft T12's as well as 4 1W Lumileds Blue LEDS for moonlights. It worked out really well. The tank has been running 14 months now and I'm pretty pleased. The coralvue's are getting yanked and I've picked up XM's for the next round. I hear great things about them.

So a couple of tankshots to get this current.....

[christyf5]

Wow, the tank looks awesome. Love those caps! :biggrin:

[bvlester]

great tank I also love the Caps, keep up on the posting..

Bill

[Ken]

Mr Biggs, love that tank, halides are great.

[Palmer]

Biggs,

Those corals look awsome. I am new to the world of corals, in the picture that focuses on the right side of the tank what is the green coral in the top left hand corner next to the staghorn? Is that a xenia? I was hoping to put something like that in my tank once it is up and running.

Palmer

[biggs]

It's just GSP (Green Star Polyps) Grows like crazy and I have tons if you want some. I'm in Victoria.

[Palmer]

Thanks I thought it may be a good starter coral and it looks good under your lighting. I am in Calgary when I get my lighting going I wil try and get some locally first.

Palmer

[biggs]

So a full tank shot....Hard to get a good pic with 20,000K lamps!!!

[Leah]

So a full tank shot....Hard to get a good pic with 20,000K lamps!!!

Beautiful tank :mrgreen: Love all the color!