watts per gallon

[Lindsikins00]

Is 4.48 watts per gallon enough for "easy" corals?

 

[austinsdad]

I've got 3.5 (4x65) in a 75g tank. I've got a deresa clam, ricordias, shrooms, xenias, hammer, frogspawn, leathers and zoos.

You've got more light than me, so I'm thinking you can do any of those easy ones.

Check out Eric Borneman's Coral book for more help, but I think you got a lot to choose from.

 

[sumphead]

WPG is a poor reference especially for saltwater. a 1 watt LED over a quart of water in a pico reef gives you 4 WPG but you'll get othing to grow. How large is your tank and what type of lighting is it? That will be the real indicator.

HTH,
R-

 

[austinsdad]

Yeah, should have mentioned mine are PCs.

 

[Nate C]

wpg - dot

Depth of Tank important -----


12, 18, 20, 24, or 30" deep makes a huge difference.



fwiw - I'm running 4.5-ish wpg (on a 24" deep tank) and supporting xenia, shrooms, montipora digitata, and some green star polyps...

 

[Lindsikins00]

It is a 29 gallon, and for some reason I was thinking 29 gallons were 36inches long, so I was going to buy a 36 inch, 2x96 watt PC light. And that would have given me 6.62 watts. Well 29 gallons are 30 inches long, so a 2x65 watt would fit, but that would only give me 4.48 watts per gallon on a tank that is appox 18-20 inches tall. Does that help? Think that would be ok?

 

[Nate C]

That should support some xenia, shrooms, polyps, etc...

If you haven't bought fixtures yet - check this out:

http://www.reefgeek.com/products/categories/lighting/104198.html

Go to www.reefcentral.com forums and search T5 sometime... I don't own one *yet* but they look very promising.

Remember wpg is one measurement - the intensity of the light is another. 10x40watt NO tubes does not equal 1 400w MH for example

 

[steve r]

i have a 2 x 65 PC fixture on a 29g. my tank is young but i am supporting, shrooms, zoo's, several differnt leathers, toadstool, xenia and a candy cane. the candy cane is new but it has opened up bigger than at the LFS, so i think that is a good sign.

steve r

 

[SaltwaterTeen]

WOW austinsdad, you keep a deresa under only 4x65watts? I think it would require more lighting, considering thats not much for a 75gal. Its not the WPG that counts, its the area the lighting covers. I have 440watt VHO's and I cant keep croceas under them cuz they need MH, and If I Just decided to get 2 175watt MH they would do better under that than my VHO, because it has more intensity. Im going to take out 2 of my 4 VHO's and add 1 or 2 250 watt MH (Or possibly 400's since im getting into the sps). I am going shopping for some cheap MH and the best I found were at sharkysreef.com

 

[Guest]

I've got 5.5 watts per gallon, where does that leave me?

 

[Lindsikins00]

Great, thanks for the feed back guys!

 

[austinsdad]

Saltwaterteen, I am almost surprised as you. But I understood the deresa to be the easiest of the clams back when I got it and didn't know anything about light. Not that I know much now, but as it's been with me for 10 months or so, I am a little surpised it has flourished. It seems very happy. Does the little twist every once in a while.

 

[lando]

I am not convinced about the whole "watts/gal." argument anymore. I have a crocea and a maxima under CF lighting and both are doing great. I have had the maxima since July and the crocea since Sept. There was a guy on this site from England, I forgot his sign on name. Anyways, he has been keeping reef tanks for years and had corals, clams and anenomes under NO lighting. I will see if I can dig up some more info.

 

[lando]

Posters user name is rayjay. HE is actually from Canada. He has a link to his web site in his signiture. Sorry, not sure how to put the link here. Just food for thought.