lighting for a nano....

[Mr Burns]

hey all, i'm a newbie to you salties! most of the time i hang around the freshwater planted tank forum, but i think i'd like to set up a 10 gallon nano reef. i understand most of what's going on except for the lighting. i'd like to keep coral, though i'm not sure exactly what kind just yet...i'm still a few months off from setting this up as my planted 85gal is priority numero uno i was checking out the setups for some nano tanks and they had a 96W powercompact bulb on a 10 gallon tank!!! that seemed excessive to me, but i'm probably wrong. would the 1x36 kit from AHSupply with the 10k/actinic combo be enough? i could go to the 2x36, but only if that's absolutely necessary. i'll probably DIY the hood. any other links/info would be great. thanks in advance!

 

[captivereefs]

I would get the Coralife 20" aqualight. It has a 96 watt quad bulb. Basically it is a shortend 96 watt bulb that is only 18"

 

[Mr Burns]

huh, ok. i'm still in planted tank mode, so you'll have to bare with me. how necessary is 96w on a 10 gallon tank?? i'm just thinking about this from the perspective of heat and algae. if i were to go with 1x36 or 2x36, in what ways would that limit would coral i could keep? i'm trying to keep this as simple as possible b/c my main focus is the planted tank....

 

[captivereefs]

Really the lowest i would go would be the 96 watt bulb. Heat will not be that bad. You can purchase the aqualegs and lift it up 2 3/4" off the tnak. Current USA doe have a 2-40 watt Orbit fixture but the best bang for the buck would be the coralife 20" aqualight.

Algea should not be a problem as long as your water quality is good. I know people who run 175 watt metal halides over 10 gallon tanks so a 96 watt PC will not hurt. It should not heat the water up that bad either. 36 watt PC bulbs would pretty much contain you to mushrooms and nothing else.

 

[Mr Burns]

wow, that's a pretty great price you have on the coralife. thanks for the suggestion! a quick question(s) though: which side are the fans on and do you know how loud they are? the tank might go right next to my bed so i'm trying to take noise into consideration even though i'm used to having my computer running constantly five feet from my bed....

 

[loganj]

I'd have to agree that the 96w quad is the way to go if you don't want to be limited as to what you can keep. I had a 10g nano for a while with a 2x36w PC setup over it. Soft corals, zoanthids, shrooms, ect... all did great in there, but I wouldn't have been able to keep anything with high light requirements. If you're going to spend the money, go with the light that will allow you to keep whatever (within reason for a nano) that you want. JMHO.

 

[captivereefs]

Stuff might live under 2 x 36 watt lights but growth will be slow if at all.