lighting for 55g reef (no hard corals )

[ChazYork]

i actually have the 2 65w daylight and 2 65w actinic power compacts on my 55g tank. i'm also seeing new growth on a purple brush gorgonian, xenia is loud and proud and also have yellow buttons and green polyps that seem to be doin well along with some shrooms. the xenia and gorg are a little above mid tank and the buttons are on the bottom and the shrooms are also mid tank although im not real sure where to put them. hth

 

[flanque]

I'd love to increase my lighting but in AU the cheapest power compacts I can find are 2x96w at $350 for the fixture & lights. Too expensive.

 

[Tex]

Good grief, I'm choked up. I read this thread because I have some of the same question about lighting and am trying to decide on how to light my new 100 gal.

I have to relate my "man's best friend story". I/we had a little AKC minarature long-haired daschund named Wagner. His daddy was a show champion on every major east coast show. We named him so because he wagged his tail like crazy when he saw us. My wife bought him at 8 weeks for me about after we were married and a few years before kids. He lived 16-1/2 years before I had to put him down. I knew him longer than I knew my own children. We took Wagner on snow skiing trips and camping/boating trips and never once had to board him. He wasn't scared of anything. Many a time I saw him chase big ole dogs out of the front yard. As if to say "Hey buddy, this is my turf, what are you doing here?" He just got old. His eyesight failed him, his kidneys failed and he became urinary incontinent and disoriented. I took a day off work and took him to the vet. I held his head and looked him in the eye as he fell asleep. Now, I've always been the tough guy macho dude who went deer hunting and loved to freshwater fish. But I have to tell you I cried like a 2 year old baby when I got home. You can throw that tough guy crap out the window. He was my bud and I still miss him.

I feel your pain flanque.

Now, what was about lighting?

 

[flanque]

Yeah about the lighting.. thinking about Otis is upsetting (tough guy hat off)...

If anyone knows better than $350 for a 2x96w PC fixture in AU... let me know.

 

[sdellin]

Tex, sorry about your dog as well, but I'm glad you got a lot of years with him. I just got another Rhodesian Ridgeback a few months ago. He's in puppy training now, he's five months old. Got him at 7 weeks. I am really in love with this dog. The problem is, he's gotten really attached to my nine-year-old ridgy, who just recently had surgery, so he can't play. But he's healing up okay. Had a vet checkup today and got the okay to take him camping in the RV this week. This will be our first two-dog trip. My Simba is getting old and grey, and I'm not well prepared for the inevitable, but I guess we never are.

I had a friend tell me he'd never get another dog because he knows he'll never find one as good as the one he had, but I don't think I could live without a dog in my life.

Looks like that 2x65w daylight and actinc setup is popular on the 55G.

 

[AMANIQU77]

I bought this recently:

For this:

Bad news. I wanted the Actinics to be on from 9AM to 7PM. Within that, I want the daylights to be on between 12PM to 5PM. Besides that, I want nothing but moonlight to be on between 7PM and 9AM. UNfortunately, the Power Center only has one control: Day and Night. Which means if I plug in the actinics on the blue and the day light on the yellow and set the time, my daylights will be on between a certain segment of the day while the rest of the 24 hours are actinics.

I can also have both actinics and daylights on at the same time only, between so and so AM to so and so PM. I should've picked the dual Power Centers.

For Single Power Center Timer owners with actinics and day light switches, did you have a neat trick that you did in order to do the 9AM to 12PM Actinic-only, 12PM to 5PM actinic and daylight combo, 5PM to 7PM actinics only, then 7PM to 9AM Moonlight? What tricks did you came up with? Thanks.