Need new bulbs, what is the best way to go?

[imsuzibo71]

It is time to replace the bulbs for my 30 gallon and I need some advice as to which kind of bulbs are best. Currently I have a 36" PC with a Corallife Smartl. 50/50, and one 24" reg. with a 10K bulb in it (i believe its 20watts). My question is am I better off going all daylight in the PC and an atenic in the regular ballast? And has anybody ever converted one to VHO? If so how hard is that? And is it a good idea? I am supporting Xenia, button polyps, Shrooms, Bubble Coral, Frogspawn, Gorgonian, Colt Coral, and recently added Zoos, and tons of green Star Polyps. I really want to get some Acros., but from what I've been told I am underlit. I am also having a heck of a time with this "white sponge" that keeps popping up. It is soo ugly! LOL It seems to love my button polyps anyone know what to do about that? Fishwise I have a maroon clown, neon and clown gobies, firefish , blenny and my cleanup crew is a cleaner shrimp, fire shrimp, hermit crabs and snails. I know i need more right? I only have about 20 lbs of LR, I am trying to get a piece a week it's just so expensive here. As ALWAYS, all of your advice is GREATLY appreciated!!!

[wanareef]

Yep, time for MH's. I would suggest a 150w MH to a 175w MH. Just need one with a spider reflector for the light spread. Then you can start to collect arcos.

That white stuff, is great for filtering you water. The best way (maybe) to get it off the rocks is to take it out and scrubb it clean. It'll probably still come back if you miss a little spot.

hth

[Doug1]

The corals you have in the tank now should fill it up quite nicely once they get some growth to them. I would look into geting a couple 96watt (36" ) PC from one of the online vendors. That should really kick the growth up a notch. If you want SPS corals I would recommend setting up another tank for them, so that you can design the lighting and water flow for SPS and not have to worry about chemical warfare issues. FWIW most of what you have now can easily be fragged as it grows, always good tradin stock