More light?

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Charlie

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Jun 30, 2006
Messages
295
I have a 72gal reef tank with a 36" CoralLife Lunar AquaLight PC, 10K & actinic. I took it off my previous 46gal tank.

I would like to increase the light but am on a tight budget right now. I have a 48in reflector which originally came with the 72gal tank. It has a 32w All Glass "Aquarium" bulb in it. The bulb is the standard 1" diameter tube with 2 pins in each end. Can I use this bulb for the purpose mentioned?

If not, what bulb can I buy that would work to increase the light for my tank.

I have mostly soft corals and 1 small clam which is sitting high up in the tank on the LR.
 
I use that same exact fixture on my 46gallon and I regret buying it because it is not enough light for SPS . I would think the 48" standard fixture could not handle just a new bulb you would have to get a new fixture with a balast that can handle a new bulb http://www.vividaquariums.com/10Expand.asp?ProductCode=04-2242-1 this site has some DIY stuff and also some decent pricing on complete fixtures
 
Well the short and long of it is this. Start setting some cash aside to either buy a new fixture or a diy kit of some kind. Even though you have your clam up high in the tank I don't think you are giving it enough light. I know that doesn't help you much. I have the same tank you do. I have dual 175w MH (10Ks) 220w of VHO Actinics and 108w of T5 blue actinics. (678watts total). I didn't have that to start off. I slowly added to my lighting. I actually started with a PC fixture 260w I think. Eventually I got the MH ballast and bulbs, then added the VHOs and just recently added the T5s. With your tank like mine they are deep and you are going to need some decent lighting to penetrate to the bottom. As Fiji said the bulb has to match the ballast. Trying to fire a bulb that doesn't match the ballast can damage both the bulb and ballast. If you would like to see some pics of my set up let me know. I have pics of the canopy I built to house the lights.
 
I was hoping that you would say that there was a 50/50 bulb available for this fixture and that this would be better than adding nothing.

No ?????????????????
 
Ziggy, I would like to see the canopy picture. I'm curious to see how you set up the location of all the different lights on the canopy. Right now I have 440watts of VHO on a 75-gallon but someday I may want to add a little MH. Im just not sure where I could put it, I was thinking maybe in right in the middle behind the VHO 45.5" ballast. Sorry if I thread jacked.
 
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