My lights

[Fishstuff45]

Hi. I have a 10 gallon nano reef. I have a fair amount of corals and there doing alright but I'm not sure if the lighting is really good enough. I have a 20 gallon strip light and a 20 inch HI (high intensity) light. Is that good enough? If not what should I upgrade too?

 

[Mrc8858]

Gonna need more info then that. Do you mean a single T8 and a single T5 HO?

 

[Fishstuff45]

Idk I guess. One is a strip light you'd get from a 20 gallon aquarium kit. The box for the other says its a t5 HI high intensity light.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

You may have ok light for soft and some LPS corals. What do each of the bulbs say and how old are the bulbs? Is it a single T5 light strip? What's the fixture brand?

 

[Fishstuff45]

It's solarmax I think and it says HE high efficiency not high intensity my bad. And it only has one bulb. The bulb on the 20g strip says its a t8. The other bulb doesn't say.

 

[Mrc8858]

You could keep the lowest light requirement corals maybe but even those may Brown out under that little lighting.

 

[Fishstuff45]

Ok we'll what should I get instead.

 

[Mrc8858]

It will kinda depend on the direction you wanna go with corals but to give you a good direction I would either do 2-4 bulb t5 high output, a taotronics led dimmable fixture, or 1 150w MH if temperature is NOT an issue already.

 

[Fishstuff45]

Ok. Do you know where I could get one online for a fairly good price.

 

[Mrc8858]

EBay or craigslist are usually your best bet (amazon too).. brand new in store reef lighting can become very expensive but lighting a 10 gallon shouldn't cost you more then $250 unless you wanna get a LED with all the bells and whistles.

 

[Fishstuff45]

Yay 250$ that's cheap lol ok thanks.

 

[Mrc8858]

After reading that last post I don't want the price to overwhelm you if your on a strict budget either cause you could easily add some t5s for enough to support softies and lps for probably $125

 

[Fishstuff45]

It's ok I looked before at some lights and saw they were a lot and had just hoped for a cheaper one but I'll pay the price for a good light.

 

[Fishstuff45]

I just ordered a light of amazon for 220$ it should come in a couple days.

 

[Mrc8858]

What kind of light?

 

[Mrc8858]

Odysea 4 bulb I'm guessing? Lol

 

[Fishstuff45]

It's a AquaticLife t5 HO 4 lamp 2 lunar aquarium fixture with a built in timer and fan

 

[Mrc8858]

Ya with that you'll be able to keep whatever you want really as long as you keep high light corals in the top half of the tank and low light corals under ledges and shaded areas. Placement will be key but with the right scape work and thought into it you could do a lot.

 

[Mr. Crabs]

That's a good pick and actually what I was gonna recommend. It's gonna be nice and bright. One thing you want to watch out for is photo shock. There is a HUGE difference in intensity from what you have now. Consider leaving 2 bulbs out for the first two weeks. Go with 1 white/1 blue (actinic). Then after two weeks, add another actinic. Wait two weeks then add the last white. I don't mean to be insistant, but too much of a good thing real fast can kill the corals. They have gotten used to low intensity with what you currently have and might recess or bleach if you throw on a 4 bulb high intensity feature right away.

Good choice though.

 

[Fishstuff45]

Ok thank you I'll do that.