Lighting?

[DamselnDistress]

I have a 75gal aquarium and I want to put in fully cured live rock and eventually have corals. I was at the LFS and they told me I need around 300 watts of light for this. Is there a certain kind of bulb I need? Some of their lighting was extremely expensive and I've seen bulbs at home depot that are 150 watt lights. Could I use these?

 

[biotoxin]

To explain they types of lighting and their functions in this post would take about 3 pages of text. To summarize, there's PC's, VHO, and Metal Halide. If youre just starting out PC's are good to use and then move into metal halide's. Or if you have the money now you can just to straight to MH's. The general wattage per gallon is 3-5. So 4 x75 you have 300 watts which is about on par with the LFS you went to. I think there are some good articles in the "Articles" section that can help you. Also there was a post called Lighting Comparasin. Search for it in the forum search area.

 

[Electrobes]

Biotoxin is on the money.. I went on an info craze for a solid day to know all about these things. I guess in summation you just need the money when it comes to these lights. The lights you saw that were 150 watts are most liekly not what you need... but could be.. it comepletely depends. You'll see whe you start reading about them. You'll most liekly need Metal Halides, compact flourecents.. and/or VHO's which I hear nto as many people using any more. Compact flo's are nice to start with, but MH's are definstaly powerful. There are a lot of poeple here into corals.. so you'll get mega help soon, I am a freshwater person myself

 

[Dewey]

lighting

On my 75 gallon i have two 250 watt 10 k Mh and Two 55 watt Actnic 03. Lighting looks great i think i have around $400.00 in all of it. If you shop around you can get pretty good deals. Good luck Dewey

 

[cj10488]

MHO I would go straight for MH lights.. The ones at Home Depot are not going to work as they are a different color temp I believe 5500k and you want 10k bulbs.. Some use 20k bulbs which are a more blue color.. MH kits are on ebay for around 300.00 for a dual 250 watt minus the bulbs which should be plenty for your tank.. Bulbs for MH lights usually run for $50.00-100.00ea PC lights will work however you will find alot of corals demand MH to really thrive and live comfortable as with clams.. Here is a good Retro kit that should suffice for your tank as well as most corals low light excluded..

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2355098714&category=3212

I have not purchased from them but It is the kit I have been debating for quite some time.. All that would be needed then is the MH bulbs as the VHOs are included and fitting the kit into a hood.. I currently have 330 watt PCs on my 55gal which are nice but I hate finding a coral or... and finding out that it does best under MH lighting and fairs at best under all other lighting.. I wish I would have just went and got straight MH bulbs but I wanted to save the Hundred or so Dollars on the PCs..

HTH,
James

 

[douggiestyle]

The general wattage per gallon is 3-5.

The ones at Home Depot are not going to work as they are a different color temp I believe 5500k and you want 10k bulbs

I dont get it. Which is more important Watts or Kelvin?

Doug

 

[Guest]

I dont get it. Which is more important Watts or Kelvin?

Actually it is both... Watts denotes the intensity and brightness and Kelvin denotes what color range the light is going to look to the eye...

 

[cj10488]

Both are important.. As well as both mean different..

wattage you want 3-5 watts per gal which for MH bulbs doesnt really factor as there is a different rule of thumb for Mh lighting which I do not remember off hand I do haever know it depends on the depth of the tank for MH.. Kelvin is the color temp of the light.. the 5500k lights are going to be extremely yellow "think car headlights" which are not suitable for aquarium use.. 10000k are going to be a more blueish-white.. 10000k is what most of us run supplimented with Either VHO actinic or PC actinic... Some people use 20000k bulbs as well.. You will see people using anywhere for 6500k to 20000k bulbs Do a search on this board for lighting and it will give you a better idea as to everthing about them.. Lighting is one of the most common topics in any saltwater forum...

HTH,
James

 

[douggiestyle]

Actually it is both... Watts denotes the intensity and brightness and Kelvin denotes what color range the light is going to look to the eye...

oh, I thought that k was just another measure of brightness like lumins or something....

Thanks

Doug

 

[cashman]

lighting alternative?

I've been researching the lighting issue. GARF has been sucessfully keeping corals by starting out with NO fluorescents and switching to VHO after a year or so. It's called their bullet-proof reef setup. They are even keeping healthy SPS with only VHO's.

 

[biotoxin]

It really boils down to what kind of tank you are doing. Of course you want MH if youre doing hard corals and lps or clams. For soft corals you can get away with VHO and PC. It also depends on tank depth. Light only penetrates so far into the water and knowing how far you need to push light through water will help you factor in what you need. Like i said its a whole volume of information you can sift through before you start understanding what you need for your tank.

 

[douggiestyle]

Ok
higher wattage or higher k

say 6.5k at 384watts

vs 10k at 260 watts

I am going crazy trying to make a desicion

Doug

 

[Guest]

I say both 6500K at 384 or 10K at 384.

The K has nothing to do with the wattage...

Either Kelvin at 384, will allow you to support some sps corals.

Either Kelvin at 260, will limit you to LPS and shrooms, zoos, etc...

It really isn't that confusing... 6500K is yellower to the eye than 10K which is whiter. The wattage will give you the intensity needed for the different animals you may want in the tank...