Lighting choice for 15G XH micro-reef

[youronlysin]

I havent set this tank up yet, as I am moving across the country in 3 weeks, but I have been purchasing the components over the last few months. Im down to only a couple things left...the lighting and the LR.

The tank is a 15 T; it has the same footprint as a ten gallon tank with 20x10 length and width, but it is 18 inches tall. Id like to have just a small reef with rock and some coral in the future. I may even use a 10 gallon tank as a sump just to keep the filtration, heating and skimmer out of view.

I dont know the light requirements for various corals, as I'm not ready to purchase yet, but I want to get the lighting up to par. Ive been looking at AH Supply's deluxe Bright Kits. My question is, what bulbs should I chose? Due to size constraints I can either go with a 2x36 Watt kit and would have a choice of 2 different bulbs, or I can go with a pair of 2x13 watt kits which would give me a choice of 4 different bulbs and is slightly cheaper, although not quite as bright. They have many bulbs available and Im not quite sure what would be beneficial in this application. I was thinking an equal mix of 10,000K and 03 Deep Blue bulbs.....any suggestions?

....I know there are several pre-made CF kits available that are nice as well, but if the AH Supply kits are sufficient, they would run about 25 bucks cheaper than the cheapest commercial CF kit I've found so far, plus it might be easier to install the kits into a custom hood. just some thoughts I had...

 

[mhaynes01]

well i have the exact same kind of tank, i have 96 watts over it so i reccomend anythinguop and above that.

also depends on the coral you want

 

[youronlysin]

That seems like a lot of light for such as small tank. Is the depth of the tank the reason for the high output? Either way, it sounds like if I went with the AH Supply kits at either 2x36W or 4x13W, My light levels are going to be low enough that I might have a hard time selecting coral?

 

[youronlysin]

Do you have any more pictures of your 15T? I saw one in your gallery that looked like a set-up pic. What other kind of hardware are you using for it?

 

[fishfreek]

If your doing reef a 96W quad PC bulb is about right. You cant do normal output thats for sure. You cant do VHO as the shortest VHO bulb is 24". A pair of 36W bulbs woudl work but only give you 72W of total light and for a tank of that depth thats not much for a reef.

Its gonna be hard geting 4 PC bulbs and reflectors over that size tank IMO.

Dont get the bulbs from ahsupply. I dont really like their bulb quality. You can get the ballast from them and the reflector and wiring kit and then get the bulbs elsewhere.

 

[youronlysin]

Ok. Sounds good to me! according to ahsupply, the 4x 13 will fit in their 20 inch hood.....who knows. Either way I'll go with the coralife instead....money well spent it seems. Thanks guys.

 

[Atari]

I may be wrong but I think T5 tubes come in 20" sizes.. That would be a good option if possible.