Golden Rules

[Peteaussi]

Hi I was just wondering if there are any golden rules for lighting.... as in are there specific rules relating to watts/volume etc. I currently have a 215L (57Gal) tank with live rock, 11 small fish, some morphs, and another coral 'thing' and was wondering if it would be overkill to get a lighting setup with 2 x 250W 10000K MHs, 4x powercompacts (2x actinic, 2x fluro) and two moon LEDs with each lighting type having a separate power cord (so I could do the light timing thingy). Alternatively I can save 30 bucks and get the same setup with 1050W MHs.... Is it best to just get the bigger in the event that I upgrade the size of my tank??

Any advice, recommendations, etc.

Cheers

Pete

[scoop]

I would go for the 250's vs. saving $30, as you said, you may want to upgrade sometime (seems like everybody does). There really aren't any 'rules' per se, like the old 5 watts per gallon thing, which doesn't apply because it doesn't address the depth of the tank and the lights penetrating ability, ect. You want to be careful not to bleach the corals you have, but you can adjust the photo period and the distance of the lights to the water to keep that from happening.

[Wiskey]

I think that the lighting you listed is going to be too much for your tank,.. but if you are seriousally thinking about upgrading later then you could always put the bulbs further off the water to reduce the ammount that gets into the tank

Are you planning on going with an SPS/Clam tank? Or just softies and LPS? because if your going softie I would definitally reccomend something less powerful.

Whiskey

[Wiskey]

Oh,.. and Welcome to TRT!!!

Whiskey

[chrischris]

well if you do an sps setup itll be enough
but id say get the 250s insted of dishing out the money for 150s then haveing to buy new lights when you upgrade
just move them off the water like whiskey said
welcome to the reef tank

[Peteaussi]

Thanks for your help with that... I was thinking of just getting the more powerful setup as I can always reduce the photo period or increase the distance from the tank. Now all I need to do is figure out a way to mount something that is 1250 long over a tank that is 980 wide... hmmm....

Hanging from a ceiling would be ideal but unfortunately the house I am in is a rented house and so I don't think they would take too kindly to people drilling their ceilings... I could make up some kind of bracket thing maybe.

I was hoping to get some nice brain corals, anemones, zoos, and morphs for the tank... I am not 100% certain of what corals just yet but I think if I go with the higher power lighting solution then it should cover me either way. All in all I think the lighting setup would provide around 3 watts/L or 12watts/ gal. Is this okay??

I was at my LFS yesterday and they had a tank that had about 2watts/L or 8 watts/Gal... And it looked just stunning. They had the lights right up close to the water too.