55 lighting requirements

[pinda]

I am setting up again my 55 gallaon. I am painting the back and the sides, since light isn't coming out the back and sides will my tank still need lots of light if i want to keep corals? The back and sides will be painted a light blue.

 

[melosu58]

It really depends on what type of corals you want. If you want to do high light SPS corals you`ll need MH`s. For moderate light sps and regular LPS and soft corals you`ll need compact flourecents, VHO`s or T5`s. There is all kind of lighting out there but how deep is your pockets. LOL

 

[Tank2379]

Well Check out my 55 Gallon I have just a 40 watt Aqua-Glo Single Bulb. My Fixture has a Build in Reflector in it... and it gives of ton of light for such a small wattage... But i'm going to upgrade it to a 110watt bulb......

 

[pinda]

I was wondering if i built my system with reflectors, paint the sides and back of the tank if i could spend less money on lighting. BTW if i only wanted FOWLR how much watts would i need. Would 120 watts do? My pockets are very deep but they have large holes in them too.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Pinda...

Painting the sides/back isn't going to reduce the amount of light you need. But if you're going FOWLR, you don't need much in the way of lighting. More lighting will make the fish color more intense, but they don't "need" the light like corals do. If you like the look of the 120W bulb, it should do fine. Melosu58 covered your lighting needs for corals.

Tank2379...

Built in reflector or not, even with a single 110W bulb, you're going to have a rough time keeping anything but some low light soft corals like mushrooms and certain zoanthids. Just FYI...

 

[Ziggy953]

I totally agree. FOWLR does not require much lighting it's more what you want to do. You could easily get away with the 120w bulb, though if it were me I would go with a 2x54w T5 setup with 1 daylight bulb and 1 actinic bulb. That will help the colors of your fish pop.

I agree with Kurt on Tank2379's setup. Low light corals and some zoas is about all you are going to get away with in your current setup.

 

[Tank2379]

Yeah right now I'm doing only FOWLR so 110watts should be ok if you guys see different i'm not getting Coral or anything that requires higher light output in my tank until I purchase my T-5 lighting fixture... I got my eyes on this one

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3733+12779&pcatid=12779

Which should do good for Coral Life.....

Right now i'm not ready or Coral.....

 

[melosu58]

That`s all you need for a FOWLR tank, Tank2379. As far as the link, that`s a good upgrade. Dont know much about the brand.

Pinda, as mentioned above any ole lighting will work for a FOWLR tank. As far as cheaper look into installing retro fits.

 

[pinda]

Will do guys, as far as coral goes when the tank matures I will think about getting more lighting.