[ghost eli]

what light should i use for my ten gallon tank.its a one soild light system i have a nano reef no fish in it yet.

 

[SaltyDawgJax]

what light should i use for my ten gallon tank.its a one soild light system i have a nano reef no fish in it yet.

I have a 10 gallon also. Mine uses the compact fluorescent. The rule of thumb is 4 watts per gallon. I'm using corallife 50/50 20 watt bulbs in each side. I'm also adding LED lights.

 

[reefer_rylan]

My gf has a 10 gallon nano reef and she has a 70 watt Metal Halide with mini led moon lights. Her tank grows corals like I only wish I could grow in my 75 gallon tank! In fact any time something starts to look crummy in my tank we put it in hers for a month and it bounces back 10x brighter than it was. too bad it looks crappy when it hits my tank again. lol.

 

[SaltyDawgJax]

My gf has a 10 gallon nano reef and she has a 70 watt Metal Halide with mini led moon lights. Her tank grows corals like I only wish I could grow in my 75 gallon tank! In fact any time something starts to look crummy in my tank we put it in hers for a month and it bounces back 10x brighter than it was. too bad it looks crappy when it hits my tank again. lol.

I'm going to change out my lighting to something similar.

 

[reefer_rylan]

We bought it second hand from a WAMAS member. We were asking about the light only, but she said she had a 10 gallon tank and a 3 gallon pico reef available too. I figured out that she was trying to set up a sea horse tank so I traded her my 35 gal hex tank, stand, and hood for her reef and extra tank and bought the light for $100. I LOVE CRAIGS LIST!

I am not sure my gf knows how lucky we got on that deal. This is her first tank after all.

 

[SaltyDawgJax]

We bought it second hand from a WAMAS member. We were asking about the light only, but she said she had a 10 gallon tank and a 3 gallon pico reef available too. I figured out that she was trying to set up a sea horse tank so I traded her my 35 gal hex tank, stand, and hood for her reef and extra tank and bought the light for $100. I LOVE CRAIGS LIST!

I am not sure my gf knows how lucky we got on that deal. This is her first tank after all.

Oh yah. Gotta love craigslist. I'm searching for just the right lights. I want to go 'topless'. I actually found my 10 gallon complete with full hood, lights, deco, gravel etc ( freshwater set up) on the side of the road in someones curbside garbage.It sat around for almost a year in our garage. Then I pulled it out, threw out the gravel and deco, scalded it in hot water/alcohol, and started cycling it 3 weeks ago for salt water

 

[egator89]

i have pc's on my 45, there ok my corals are still growing but I am in the middle of a 65 gal build to upgrade my tank and will be going with a halide/t5ho fixture. but with a 10 gal, i think just a nice t5ho fixture would make things grow how you want them. the halide would be nice as well tho

 

[reefer_rylan]

Yea. T5ho works too don't get me wrong but if you can afford to use a halide and get about 7 watts per gallon the benefits are well worth the costs I PROMISE! If you are asking what lights you will need minimally PC lights will allow you to do soft corals and LPS, but if you want to go all out either Halides or LEDS. With a small tank like this you could use a panorama Ecoxotic that I saw for sale on one of the threads last night. the guy is asking 320 for it. That would do great for your tank I think and that would be all you need.

 

[egator89]

agreed but on a ten gallon, unles mounted high above the tank i would worry about a lot of heat, wouldnt you? Ive heard t5ho's have pretty good PAR ratings especially in shallow tanks which will allow you to grow anything.

 

[reefer_rylan]

agreed but on a ten gallon, unles mounted high above the tank i would worry about a lot of heat, wouldnt you? Ive heard t5ho's have pretty good PAR ratings especially in shallow tanks which will allow you to grow anything.

like i said at the beggining of the thread. we have a 70 watt halide about 6 inches over the surface of the water on my gfs tank and we don't have any trouble with heat. If anything just set up two timers to the heater kicks off a little before the light kicks on and turns back on about an hour after the light goes off if you are really that worried about it. I wouldn't recommend a 250w halide or anything like that because of heat, but a nice 70w hal unit with fans in the end etc it pretty much takes care of itself.

 

[reefer_rylan]

I can't find the post about the member who is trying to sell their Ecoxotic Panorama LED panel for $320. That is a pretty good deal if you can find that post. That would be more than enough for your tank I think. mounting it might take some engineering but it would make your tank look great. Also Fishboy just posted about building LEDs for his tank... might want to see what unit he has and get first dibbs on his old HQI hal.

Hope that helps.

 

[egator89]

it wwas just a thought to think about not a fact.. im not all that familiar with small tanks like that. thinking of settinh up a small tank for frag/qt

 

[SaltyDawgJax]

You guys are great those lights are for sale in the Florida club want ads. I don't really WANT to spend 320.00 for lights for the 10. I have a 29 waiting in the wings that's going to need lights too. I spoke with Jason at Reef Fanatics today and he CAN get me good lights for the 10. The 10 is basically an invert tank. Now when fihsboy decides to sell the lights he's replacing with the LEDS ( which is a great thread BTW) I would be happy to buy them from him ( hint hint)!

 

[reefer_rylan]

it wwas just a thought to think about not a fact.. im not all that familiar with small tanks like that. thinking of settinh up a small tank for frag/qt

Meant no offense in my response I promise. Sometimes I come off a little harsh. lol.

SaltyDawgJax... I would just PM him and make him an offer for them. I bet a little incentive will encourage him to have his LEDs up and running in no time. haha. Taking advantage of an opportunity is never a bad idea.