Reef Lighting, how many watts per gallon?

[pearsont74]

so what ur sayin is wattage isnt really waht one should base your choice of lightin on...

 

[Hara]

sea apples are cucumbers, they do not have lighting requirements. Anemone are different in their lighting needs. Some require HIGH lighting and some moderate as in the 4 wpg range. Sea apples can be hazardous to your tank's health. Anemone should not be attempted until you have some serious experience and your tank has aged somewhat. I think before you do much more lighting research, you need to research what you want to put in the tank and their lighting needs.

 

[Brodie]

Stay away from Sea Apples too.

 

[bigsky]

Pearsont74- when you talk about lighting with your LFS or fellow hobbiests you ask how much light do I need not how much power should I burn....in general the more power you burn the more light you get using like technologies e.g. 40w incadesent vs 60w or 40W NO fluorescent vs 110W HVHO but you get more light out of a 110w VHO than out of 2)55W incadesents so you would want to use VHO.

What I found is not so much what bulb you use but the reflector you use.
if you use any fluorescent bulb they are quite the same in that a 40w T12 is about 2500 lumens and 110w T12 is about 5500 lumens (watts per lumen about the same (bare bulb endcaps no reflector or housing)).

what make T5 and PC brighter is the small diameter of the bulbs both about 5/8" instead of 1.5" of T12 (T#=#/8") think a water pipe...1.5" pipe running 40 gal per min. vs 1.5" pipe running 110 gal per min...you have increased the pressure in the water pipe to get more water to flow out of it.... how else can you increase the pressure in a pipe....you could decrease the pipe diameter e.g. 40gpm-1.5"pipe to a 110gpm-1.5"pipe OR 54gpm-5/8" pipe.

So a VHO or a PC or a T5HO all about the same output in lumens, but it's the reflector that distinguishes each bulb. VHO's parabolic reflector would have to be huge and the PC's can't use a parabolic reflector because it is doubled and can't be put at the focal but the T5's can and that is why they are said to be soo much better.

 

[pearsont74]

good info to know cause it seems T5 are becomin more and more
im sure most will still stay MH is the best lighting but if T5 can come close....they are alot cheaper
The nice thing is most VHO ballast can power T5 (pretty sure mine can)
Im just wondering which i should use....
cause i too would like to have an open option on what i want to house in my tank....
Not really sure about getting into too many corals but love the anemones.
I also have read the height really plays a big factor too....i have a 18" tall tank...but i have read that if you have a tank over 24" then you probably will need MH cause VHO, T5 or PC will be able to light the depth.
I wonder how many T5 bulbs i would need to equal 4 VHO bulbs...

 

[greenmaji]

Is too much lighting a bad thing Hara?
Personaly wanting to not be restricted by lighting for coarl keeping, If I wanted to keep high light needs coal, would be the goal of lighting reaserch for me. TIA

 

[greenmaji]

ok.. can too much lighting be a bad idea in the planning/reaserch stages?
current thoughts and questions.
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=61442&start=10

 

[HoopsGuru]

Is too much lighting a bad thing

Absolutely, the point of lighting for reef livestock is to at least provide the compensation point. Almost all of us have garden tanks (mix of corals from different areas of the reef) so it is difficult to hit the saturation point which would be truly ideal (i.e. you could be at the saturation point for SPS but nuking corallimorphs on the bottom).

Photoinhibition occurs at a given point over saturation and often leads to bleaching, etc.

 

[greenmaji]

Is there a resource for finding out the area's of the reef coals are from and the lighting needs of them?

 

[HoopsGuru]

Eric Borneman's Aquarium Corals book has their natural location and care tips. It also goes into some detail on the reef slope, crest, etc.