compact fluorescent lighting question

[milmokes]

I want to add compact fluorescent lighting to my 29 gallon tank to keep some anemones/corals. Can anyone give me some info about this lighting? I narrowed it down to 3 different lighting systems, which include satellite, orbit and coralife aqualight compact fluorescent. all lighting is 65 watts(2bulbs)

 

[dolphinsfan]

I have a coralife 65w compact fluorescent with a 50/50 bulb on my 26 gallon bow. You should be able to keep some shrooms and other low maintainance soft corals. I'm not sure about anemones though.

 

[milmokes]

u have any problems with lighting system? what type of hood did you use with it?

 

[RMPD109]

I am looking at the same conversion for my 28 gal. Both the orbit and satellite are produced by Current USA. My LFS says the only difference is the amount of lunar lights and a sleeker housing on the orbit. I have also been told that the Current USA bulbs have a wider spectrum of light than the coralife.(sorry if terminology is wrong). This is swaying me towards the Orbit for the better bulbs and lunar lighting. HTH

 

[captivereefs]

The CVurrent USA uses dual daylight and dual actinic bulbs, The dual daylight has 1 tube at 10K and the other at 6700K. The dual actinc is 420nm/460nm. The coralifes are going to be more dependable based on my experiance. Also if you have a warranty issue current USA is very hard to get ahold of where as coralife will answer the phone on every call. I have sold hundreds of each light and have only 2 reported problems with the coralifes and about 15-20 with the current USA.

 

[captivereefs]

I personally run a 2-65 watt lunar aqualight on my sons 26 bow.

 

[dolphinsfan]

It is a corallife 65w aqualight. I use it on my FOWLR setup primarily to support/promote coralline growth on my liverock. From a previous post, it was suggested that it should be possible to have some of the easier soft corals as well. I'm really pleased with the light for my tank. If you are serious about having a reef setup, I would suggest that you look into investing in a lighting system with a higher wattage output than you are currently considering. But I'll leave it to the experts to chime in for more knowledgable information. lol.

 

[RMPD109]

Thanks - I guess I should stick with my first impression and go with the coralife for the dependability. What difference do the dual daylights and actinic give

 

[macman7010]

I have the 65 watt coral life with the dual daylight 10,000 k bulb. It works well for both maintining invertabres and growing plenty of algae for your fish to graze on. For keeping an anenome though you will need more light - between 3 to 5 watts per gallon so I would recommend using either 2 coral life systems or using the 65 watt compact in conjuction with a 20 watt flourascent 10,000 k bulb.

 

[captivereefs]

The dual daylights and actinics are susposed to give a wider spectrum but i have not heard anything that says it is better then straight 10K and actinic bulbs