I know next to nothing about lighting as you will soon see....

[icebear]

But i was wondering if i could possibly get better, stronger, brighter lighting out of the cheezy, basic equipment that i currently have. My lights are the normal ones that come with regular tank hoods- well i did buy 'sepecial' bulbs.... i have one double ballast and one single, 36".... what i have in it for bulbs are in the double: one 10,000K superdaylight and one blue actinc. in the single i have a 50/50...
i was only able to get the third bulb on this weekend because i have a versatop on my bowfront and i had a visijet skimmer in the back that took up too much room for me to be able to slide the versatop back all the way and close the cover. After a good deal of thought and testing i came to the onclusion that the Visijet was serving absolutely NO purpose other than a producer of bubbles because i was getting no skimjuice out of it and when i did, i had to had to turn it up almost maximum and then the skimjuice looked like tea. So i took it out and i don't know what to do with it, but now i can slide my Versatop back and close the lid, since i can now do that i was able toput the third light on top and not have to worry about water hittng them.... so my tank is so much brighter, but if i can get better bulbs that fit in the same pieces then i want to try it. I really can't afford that extra special lighting i read about for the calms and for the really bright corals, but if i can boost my light enough to widen my range of stuff i can keep and maybe get some coraline to grow.....

is there anything i can do with flourescent bulbs or is what i have pretty much it?

[Reedman]

Probably the cheapest way to increase the lighting in your tank is to get a VHO ballast (icecap) that will drive the NO (regular) flourecent bulbs. You could then use your current bulbs and fixture and just hookup the new ballast. This will increase the light, but will decrease the life of your bulbs.

With lights in the reef tanks, you may be better off doing a reality check of what you want to keep (long term) and decide what lights that tank will require. There is no sense getting an interim fix, just to have it collect dust later. If you want to eventually keep clams, I would seriously consider a DIY metal halide setup. Just my opinion of course.

Good luck, and keep asking questions.

-Reed

[icebear]

clams, eventually, yes...but not in this tank..... if that time ever comes i'd want a whole setup just for that and a few other things... it would be at least 2 years from now.


What i want to be able to keep would depend on what i could do with what i have, like if i got an icecap ballast and stuff, i'd go to a BB and ask what i could keep in my tank and describe what i have for lights.


i think what my light problem is that i have no concept of the basics. like what is "High" light compared to "LOW" light, what i have in my salt tank is "high" light to me simply cause in my freshwater tanks i have always had the standard bulbs which was only really needed for viewing the fish. but the corals don't see it that way.

i kinda wish the salt water critter shops would list their livestock in that order like:

These are low light critters- eg fish, algaes,etc and list
These are medium- eg, mushrooms, and list
These are high- Clams, etc....

That way i'd say, ok, i have medium light and right now i can choose from this list of stuff....

Guess i need to learn the basics. But the people who talk about it know so much about it they use abbreviations and acronyms that i can't decipher or keep straight....watts per gallon and NO and Iwaskis....

don't really know where to start...LOL

[icebear]

like what do they mean when they say "moshrooms have moderate lighting needs" and then they say the same thing about long tentacled anemonies....i thought anemonies needed more light than shrooms.....hmmm.....

[Geoff]

being a visi skimmer thingy owner also. right now it is doing duty on the old 55 to see what is left from the crash that will live or die. it is working when it is producing tea, that is the skimmate, not much but it is doing something. I know it is a real pain, that is why i diy me new one. i would make sure you have a skimmer on the tank though.

G~

[Jimbo]

Check this link, you can get a $17 ballast and overdrive your tubes 2-4x more output from them. Let me know how many tubes you have and sizes and I can give you the hookup details.

http://205.214.81.55/forums/showthre...threadid=14015

-Jimbo

[icebear]

thought i'd do an extra water change of about 5 gallons every 5th day if i notice my levels creeping up fast... to be honest, about 30% of the time i had the thing unplugged cause all it would do is make these teeny bubbles....my clown would look like he had ich

when i get the sump put together i will give it another chance and try it in there, hopefully i can keep the bubbles from getting into my tank that way, if it does even a little job there i'll be ok with it....just no more bubbles and it was bulky

[Reedman]

LOL

I know how you feel. Been there

NO = Normal Output flourecent (what comes with the tank when you buy it.

VHO = Very High Output flourecent

PC = Power Compact flourecent

MH = Metal Halide

NO is typically considered low light
VHO is good for moderate light and depending on how many bulbs high light
MH is great for high light. downside is the heat. Personally I wouldn't go any other way.

If you look on http://www.liveaquaria.com they have descriptions and light requirements. Also, look into some good books on corals and reef tanks. And when at the LFS and you see a coral you like, find out what it is and how long it's been there. If it has been there a while and looks happy/healthy, check to see what lighting the store is using.

Best of luck.

[icebear]

Jimbo, sounds interesting.... i'm assuming that i'll have to get out the wire cutters and the electrical tape for this? I've never tried a rewiring project...the fiance is pretty good at stuff like that, but i will probably have a hard time understanding directions... i'm weird like that.
If yuo can email me the basic instructions i will see if its less complex than i am making it in my head. If its too much i'll try to ask intellegent questons and if i can't make sense of it i'll hand it over to my fiance...

I have NO bulbs?

What are PC and HO (high output?). i know what VHO is (very high output) but i don't know how they compare to PC, NO, HO.... and wattages and amps, i simply have nothing to base it on.... i'll get it eventually.

[Jimbo]

How many bulbs do you have and what sizes?
~Jimbo

[icebear]

i have Julian Sprung's book Corals, and i enjoyed the pictures, but i think the light requirements were listed as"Low, medium or moderate, and high" which at the time i had absolutely no clue about all the lighting options, simply never even knew they existed.

Thanks for the abbreviations Reedman, i had some idea of some of them, but no idea which order of strength...i might have thought VHOs were stronger than MH simply causethe name is more descriptive....how do PCs compare to those?

[icebear]

Jimbo, i have the normal hood for a 36"....one has two places for the flourescent tubes, and i have another that takes one tube. in the double i have one 10,000K Superdaylight and a Blue Actinic, in the single bulb light i have a 50/50, all Coralife brand i think.

[mikeMersot]

if you are going to stay with NO, I would consider the triton and blue moon bulbs by aquarium products. http://www.garf.org/bestlights.html

you should be able to keep shrooms and some low light softies with these.

As for the ranking of lighting, MH strongest by far, then VHO, then PC(although some people like PC better than VHO, I am not one of those)

BTW, I dont think reedman told you what Iwaskis are, they are a brand of MH bulb

[Minnreefer]

Iwill see if I can confuse this anymore. NO is like what you have, you can grow some mushrooms and some other corals with those lights, but they won't thrive. I would recomend getting VHO or PC. they are different strenghts but similiar, if you look at www.premiumaquatics.com and look at there lights the same price for PC and VHO will get very similiar output. Basic wiring on those cheaper lights is pretty easy, we can help you with that. The easiest and best long term is an icecap 660 ballast, IMHO.

HTH

Jon

[icebear]

If i do what Jimbo has suggested with my existing bulbs, what will they compare to? will they become like Power Compacts? and will it make my mushrooms happier?