Zoa Lighting
 

Hi all i am wondering what would b a good light for my 4' 45 gallon tank, it has a 15" of water in it. i am not looking at spending a whole lot of money on it but i could save if needed. Just want to know a good light that'd work for this application. Don't have a budget yet so.. ya lol. Rigt now i have a coralife dual t5 thing. Anyways any input would b appreciated.

Cheers, Ian

T5 are best for coloring zoanthids up. Zoanthids are hard to keep, those beautiful and rare that is.


I have them under metal halide in my 75 gallons and under T5 in my 21 gallons nano and the colors are very different. For exemple, I have a frag of pink and gold paly in both tank from the same frag and in the 75 gallon with MH 14k light they are dull and with very long tentacles, mostly gold in color. In the 21 gallons with 4 x 24 watt 2 actinic, 1 fiji purple and one 14k aquablue special, the color is really nice with the pink in the center quite intense and the skirt being gold. The tentacles on those under T5 and short and fat, the tentacles under 14k MH are long and skinny.

So I prefer the T5 for my zoanthids growth and color. You should probably go for a 48" 4 neon fixture as 2 is probably not enough.

Do you think that this would work?
http://oceanaquatics.com/store/produ...-Bulb-Fixture/

I think that would work just fine for most zoas and a lot of softies and lps too.

Yes Tek lights are good lights, at least juging how happy people seem to be with them.

I would take the optional acrylic protector though as it is a mess to clean salt creep and dust going inside the fixture. It is easy enough to remove it if you don,t want it but I leave mine always because I always have to clean that acrylic cover about every 2 weeks because it's full of splash and my fixture is 10" high.

Later you could change the bulb for 1 aquablue special, 2 actinic, 1 fiji purple, or a 20k bulb.

Ok i think illget this light, just wondering what a good bulb set up is if i want good growth and want the zoas to really pop

bump

Well I gave you a suggestion with 2x actinic, 1 x fiji purple and 1 x aquablue special or 20k bulb.

Else it basicaly a matter of personal taste. You could put 2 x aquablue special and 2 x actinic.

Could u maybe post that setup u have along with the bulbs u have too plz? or maybe give me a link plz?

If you want to have some reference of what's available, here at goreef there are some of the available bulb:

http://www.goreef.com/54W-T5-Fluorescent-bulbs/

You coud 2 actinic like these:

http://www.goreef.com/ATI-T5-HO-54W-ACTINIC.html or

http://www.goreef.com/UV-Lighting-T5...r-Actinic.html

and one Fiji purple:

http://www.goreef.com/Korallen-Zucht...ple-T5-HO.html

And one aquablue special:

http://www.goreef.com/ATI-T5-HO-54W-...E-SPECIAL.html

or this one, but more expensive:

http://www.goreef.com/Korallen-Zucht...00K-T5-HO.html

So you would get 2 actinic which you put on one switch and one fiji purple and one aquablue which you put on another switch, so that way you can shut off the purple and aquablue and leave only actinic in the evening to make the coral color pop. You could only use the 12k or 14k and the fiji purple for 6 or 7 hours per day, mid day for the growth and use the actinic in the evening for pop.