reef lighting on 55gal

[03shee]

I wanna get my 55 gal tank back up n running. I've had it for 4years with fish only, but Wanna make it a reef tank. I need some help on where and what type of lighting to use? before with the fish I had 2 eclipse type fiters with lighting, that had a total of 80watts, how much for a 55 about 275 watts sound right? what do you fellas suggest, any help would be great. Also what size chiller should I get, I saw a new thermo-electric on that had a digital temp gauge and was round $300 is that any good? Thanks

 

[saltcreep1025]

275 watts would let you keep anything but clams and sps

 

[cj10488]

I would suggest 2x250w MH lights with some sort of actinic supplementation.. Possibly 1x100w VHO.. This lighting would let you keep anything.. I have about this same lighting on my 55gal tank as well.. Makes it quite nice.. 275w of light on a 55gal is pretty borderling for even most LPS.. Maybe some low light Shrooms and such would be ok on that lighting.. Sorry I know nothing about chillers..

HTH<
James

 

[packfan2204]

what james just recommended is exactly what i'm about to purchase

***Duplicate Post removed by Bearfan***

 

[loganj]

It really depends on what you want to keep in the tank. If you think you might want to go with SPS corals, clams, and perhaps an anemone later, then you should look at a MH system. I agree with cj10488 that a 2x250w MH with actinics would let you keep pretty much anything you wanted. You can choose from VHO, PC, or T-5 for actinics. T-5 seems to be the up and coming thing right now. If you only want to keep some of the lower light soft corals, then you could go with a 3x110w VHO or a 4x65w PC setup. The danger in this is that you will probably want to try some of the more difficult corals later and you'll have to upgrade your lighting to do that.
You shouldn't need a chiller unless it's really hot in your house. The heat from the lights can mostly be removed by fans in the canopy.