20 gallon reef aquarium - 65 Watts enough??
- Thread starter Stoffer
- Start date
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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
reefrunner69
Aquarium Advice Addict
Is the lighting, NO, or PC? Whether you need more light really depends on what you envision keeping in this tank. If you want to keep lots of SPS, and clams, then yes you need more light, if you want softies you might be OK, for most LPS a small upgrade would be beneficial.
NO - Normal Output Florecents
PC - Power Compact Florecents
SPS - Small Polyp Stoney coral --> these require higher intensity light
LPS Large Polyp Stoney coral ---> these overall dont require as much light as SPS but some types do require intense lighting.
I suspect its a single PC bulb fixture with a 65W (approx 23" long) 50/50 bulb.
If thats the case you will probably be fine for lower light corals like mushrooms and other soft corals and maybe (depending on the species and location) a few of the LPS varieties.
If you want to keep some of the higher light corals then you probably would be good to upgrade but to something more substantal than just 75W. To give you an idea I have two 55/65W bulbs over my 20 high and realisticly I could use more light than that if I had room in the canopy to put another bulb and reflector.
PC - Power Compact Florecents
SPS - Small Polyp Stoney coral --> these require higher intensity light
LPS Large Polyp Stoney coral ---> these overall dont require as much light as SPS but some types do require intense lighting.
I suspect its a single PC bulb fixture with a 65W (approx 23" long) 50/50 bulb.
If thats the case you will probably be fine for lower light corals like mushrooms and other soft corals and maybe (depending on the species and location) a few of the LPS varieties.
If you want to keep some of the higher light corals then you probably would be good to upgrade but to something more substantal than just 75W. To give you an idea I have two 55/65W bulbs over my 20 high and realisticly I could use more light than that if I had room in the canopy to put another bulb and reflector.
loganj
Aquarium Advice Addict
Agreed...if you want to keep corals. I have two 20gal tanks running right now with corals in them...one has two 65w PC's and the other has three 65w PC's. These tanks house soft corals and zoanthids only at this point.
