What type of lighting?

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Fishfan321

Aquarium Advice Freak
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I am going to set up a 10 gal nanoreef with 1 pajama cardinal, cleaner crew, and of course corals. I'd like to have mushrooms, xenias, zoos, and more. what type of lighting should I get? A link would be really helpful..thanks!
 
Try and find a PC fixture, you should be able to get by fine with the corals you said you would like to have and even some LPS. They are pretty cheap in terms of cost if that is an important factor to you. If cost is not a factor, and you want higher light corals such as SPS, try looking into small halide setups (150w and under), and maybe even LED.
 
Could always go T5 too.. :)

However, under a 10G tank, if you were going to do all SPS then i would suggest a 150w Halide. I think for softies and some LPS a 150 would be pretty intense over a 10G. Unless you hung it pretty high above the tank. I would say go with a 70w Halide over the 10G tank. You could keep anything you wanted and if you kept the light high above the surface of the water you wouldn't bleach any corals.

You could definitely do LED's too.. and your corals would fluoresce like crazy.
 
Meh.. They do, but the bulb selections are pretty garbo. You would be better off going with a 2x24w T5 fixture over a 10G, since the legs will fit the tank, unlike the 20" T5 fixture. The light spill from the 2x24w fixture is negligible.

However, if you were to go with the 20" T5 fixture, UVL just came out with a couple new 18" bulbs for the 20 inchers so i guess you could do some mix 'n matching... but not much still.
 
Price of what? Reef lighting is not cheap, to be completely honest. The 2x24w lights are cheaper, but anything after that it's going to be a hundred to a couple hundred dollars, and then some.
 
Zer0 said:
Price of what? Reef lighting is not cheap, to be completely honest. The 2x24w lights are cheaper, but anything after that it's going to be a hundred to a couple hundred dollars, and then some.

I was asking what lighting would be suitable for the corals I want and the price
 
Could you do a 1 light strip with a 50/50 bulb that has actnic and 10000k ?
 
A 50/50 bulb by itself couldn't support much of anything. A 20" T5 HO fixture should be in the range of $150-$300, probably right in the middle of that range, I'll try and dig up a link.

*EDIT* http://www.aquacave.com/20-6x18w-no...nmbr-actinics-by-current-usa-br1083-2360.html

Expensive, but it would allow you to keep anything you want, bulbs would be a pain to get though. I would honestly go for a 70w halide pendant, cheaper and bulbs are easier to get.
 
Last edited:
thominil said:
A 50/50 bulb by itself couldn't support much of anything. A 20" T5 HO fixture should be in the range of $150-$300, probably right in the middle of that range, I'll try and dig up a link.

*EDIT* http://www.aquacave.com/20-6x18w-nova-extremebr-pro-t5ho-3x10k3x460nmbr-actinics-by-current-usa-br1083-2360.html

Expensive, but it would allow you to keep anything you want, bulbs would be a pain to get though. I would honestly go for a 70w halide pendant, cheaper and bulbs are easier to get.

I don't think I can afford that but what's a pendant?
 
Go with the 24" one. More light, and you can keep it over your tank with just the legs. The 20" version doesn't fit on standard 10G tanks, so you would need to get custom legs or hang it. Witch is a PITA.
 
Zer0 said:
Go with the 24" one. More light, and you can keep it over your tank with just the legs. The 20" version doesn't fit on standard 10G tanks, so you would need to get custom legs or hang it. Witch is a PITA.

This is a good idea.. I will probably buy this one cuz it's only 70$
 
I know this sounds like I'm trying to be extremely cheap, but could I do a mushroom tank with just a flourescent?
 
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