lighting 2

[rookie reefer]

lets beat the dead horse.....again just wanting to know my light to coral range

What wattage for a 10 gallon would be considered moderate to high lighting. I am getting this which has a total of 80 watts.. http://www.marineandreef.com/Satelli...p/rcu01012.htm

[chrischris]

that would be consider moderate lighting if you want high lighting go with t5 or mh

[rookie reefer]

i cant find t5's that are 20" only 24"

[Jadinop]

I'd like to throw in a few kicks if you don't mind. First being the 80 advertised watts that the fixture claims. The bulb breakdown is as follows:
First 40w bulb:
20 watts 420nm actinic-great for color, not much for growth
20 watts 460nm actinic-again great for color, not much for growth

Second 40w bulb:
20 watts 6700k-great for growing algae
20 watts 10k-good for coral growth

Is this really 80 usable watts of light? A single 70w 14k mh bulb would put out much more usable light for growing corals even though it is technically 10 less watts.

If the plan is to keep softies and other low light corals than this light will work fine. However, when determining total watts from a fixture you must take into account what each bulb is putting out.

[rookie reefer]

the coral i want is frogspawn, hammer, mushrooms, polyps, green star polyps, sun coral, fox coral, xenia, kenya tree, montiporas, and leathers. Is this lighting capable of sopporting growth for these coral or do i need a better lighting system. If i need a better one can you give me a website that does have t5's in 20"

[Elegance Coral]

Originally Posted by Jadinop

I'd like to throw in a few kicks if you don't mind. First being the 80 advertised watts that the fixture claims. The bulb breakdown is as follows:
First 40w bulb:
20 watts 420nm actinic-great for color, not much for growth
20 watts 460nm actinic-again great for color, not much for growth

Second 40w bulb:
20 watts 6700k-great for growing algae
20 watts 10k-good for coral growth

Is this really 80 usable watts of light? A single 70w 14k mh bulb would put out much more usable light for growing corals even though it is technically 10 less watts.

If the plan is to keep softies and other low light corals than this light will work fine. However, when determining total watts from a fixture you must take into account what each bulb is putting out.

Good post!

Rookie Reefer
If you dropped the hard corals off your list you would be fine with those lights. If you really want the hard corals, the 70W MH is a good suggestion.

[rookie reefer]

thanks for all your input. am am just going to drop the hard coral.....will i have alot of algae in my tank with these lights...oh and these lights are better than i have now..just 2 10watt 50/50s

[Jadinop]

I would look into changing the 6700k/10k combo bulb for just a 10k bulb if you can find one. I don't know why anyone would want that bulb combination in a reef tank.

[chrischris]

actually alot of people like to have at least one 6700k bulb on their reef tank because of the increased par value

[rookie reefer]

i found this website that has
Current USA 40 Watt 10K DAY/460NM ACTIN BULB

if i get 2 of these..will this meet my coral need like the hard coral.

[rookie reefer]

...

[Jadinop]

That will bump you up to 40watts of 10k and 40watts of actinic. Of course, you will lose the ability to turn the 10k/actinic lights on separately due to them both being on the same bulbs. Not really a big deal but some people prefer it. The issue you are going to run into is keeping hard corals alive vs keeping them looking good. Under low light you will experience color loss and end up with mostly brown corals. If you are really serious about keeping hard corals you should check out the 20" Current Sunpod with the 70w 14k metal halide bulb.

With that being said, there are many nice soft corals that will look good and thrive under the pc lights. You may want to save the hard corals for your next probably bigger tank. If you are new to reef keeping 10 gallons is going to require more attention to detail than most beginners are ready for. Bad things happen fast in small tanks.

[rookie reefer]

i'm 15 so i have a lot of time to kill lol; no job, so the attention is nothing to worry about.

[rookie reefer]

then i'll just drop the hard corals i don't want to kill anything.

[Jadinop]

That's a good idea for now. You can start off with the softies and once you have that going good it's not difficult to switch over to the hard corals.