Reef tank lighting question

[Speakerman]

Would 5.4 Wpg be too much for my 37 gallon that is 20" tall.

The light would be 5000K and around 12000-13000 lumens.

I want to build a new hood for it with a couple of those 100 W fluorescent screw in bulbs.

LMK

 

[afilter]

No, I would think it will be right in line with the ideal 5-6 WPG for most corals. Depending on what type of hood you are constructing you may need to watch heat especially with a smaller tank which will feel the effects more.

 

[Speakerman]

Well I'm going to have two 80 millimeter fans blowing in one side and a single 120 millimeter fan blowing out of the other side. The hood is going to be thin wood, probobly 1/4" material and the lights will have plenty of room on all sides for airflow.

The next question is...

Is there anything else I need to do to the tank to make it ready for coral life? Like in freshwater you pretty much have to do CO2 injection and stuff like that to make the plants healthy...

From what I understand all I need is a lot of flow, as much water as I can get, 1.22 SG, 8.3 pH, no ammonia, no nitrites, and minimal nitrates, as much live rock as I can afford (more SA the better), a good skimmer (which from what I understand my Seaclone is not the best but will work) and fish that will not eat the coral...

Anything else?

I don't have a sump...but am running a Rena Filstar xP1 in addition to the skimmer and my aquaclear 70 - model 802 PH

 

[neilster1]

5000k sounds like the wrong light spectrum for a reef tank.. I run 10000k and actinic pc lights.

 

[Speakerman]

From what I've read, I don't think the color of the light makes a whole whole lot of difference with most of the basic corals.

 

[neilster1]

I'd be interested to know what you have been reading.

Take a look at what successful reefkeepers have been doing.. You usually see PC, T5 and MH.. most PC and T5 daylight bulbs are 10000K, MH around 12000K. 6700K is waht I use on my refugium for growing macroalgae - a very "yellow" light. I'm afraid an even more yellow light at 5000K would result in massive algae problems for you.

Those of us who use PC lights have to re-lamp our 10000k bulbs every 6-8 months or so because the PC lamps tend to drift downward in spectrum over time.

I'm not trying to be adversarial here.. it just sounds like you may have gotten some bad information here. That said, there are those here that know much more than me so someone please correct me if I am wrong.

 

[Speakerman]

5000K is a daylight bulb that is pretty white light. 4100K is a cool white light...2700K is what they call warm white...

I've got a 50/50 light on one of my little tanks that is 10000k and phosphorous or something like that....anyway its blue.....So I just don't know what do think....

I've aslo had other lights that were like 6500k and they were pink.

 

[steve r]

lower temp ( K ) bulbs will promote unwanted algae growth in saltwater tanks. we use bulbs in the 5000-6700K range to promote macro algae growth in the sump. the most popular spectrum for healthy coral growth is 10,000K. if you think 5000K is white wait till you get a look at a 10,000K! i am running 2 x250watt MH 14,000K right now and
2 x 54watts actinic T5. i am over 8 watts per gallon

on the subject of flow. the more the better. the addition of a SCWD or wave makers is even better. on my 75g. i run a mag 12 with a SCWD, two seio 820 PH's , a maxijet 400 and two little 100GPH pico powerheads

steve r

 

[Speakerman]

Aight thanks for the info, I talked to my local fish guy...and he's got a 2x96W strip that he is going to hold for me. It has 10000k lights in it.

 

[ntswift]

I agree that the 10,000k lighting would be the best choice. That is what I run on my reef along with actinics.