lighting question

[tiredfish]

im setting up a 55 gal. reef tank.im gonna eventually buy aqualite 48" retrofit...i built the tank stand and canopy myself...so it has to be custom fit i guess....anyways my question is ..can i use 48" 4x40 watts gro-lux floresent bulbs to get my tank to cycle?or until i can afford the retrofit. my first tank is a 30 gal...and im putting the live rock and fish or what-not into the new one..will they be messed up by the change in light? my tank currently is getting 4 watts per gal...if i switch i would get only about 3 watts per gal...is that gonna mess things up? i dont really have any corals and things of that nature....just some polyps that are dying anyways. thanx for any info..laterz

 

[loganj]

I think it'll be OK as far as the amount of lighting goes. Your coraline should adapt fine since that's plenty of light for it. I would not use the Gro-lux lamps though. Buy some aquarium lights...two white and two actinic. Phillips makes a 6500k bulb that would be OK for your white lights...you can get them at Lowes I think. The Gro lamps will be much more likely to promote unwanted algae growth. When you upgrade to PC's, you may want to shade the tank for a few days with some screen to let the life on the rock adapt to the more intense lighting.