Advice on upgrading light for 10gal

[HumanIMDB]

<i>(Posted also to the Newbie Forum)</i>

I'm looking to upgrade the two Coralife Compact Fluorescent 50/50 Incandescent Type Bulbs on my 10 gallon reef to a <a href="http://www.esuweb.com/cardfile.asp?ItemNumber=53101&IDProductRelationship=36">Coralife 20" AquaLight Deluxe (96 watt 50/50 4-Tube)</a>.

Currently in the tank I have a Green Clown Goby, a cleaner shrimp that may or may not make it through it's <a href="http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=936544">molting issues</a>, a <a href="http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=934424">Blue Mushroom</a>, an assortment of snails, and one Blue Leg Hermit Crab.

I'm looking to add a pair of clowns and some coral in the next month or two. I'll probably go with more mushrooms, polyps, and some softies to start and eventually work my way up to the more demanding stuff over time.

I have two questions. First, will that be too much light for the mushroom I have already? <i>Resolved by moving it under some shade?</i> Second, is that enough light to keep everything but the most finicky SPS Corals, Clams, and Anemones?

 

[seacowboy]

I'm no expert, but I have a Coralife 96 Watt over my 10 gallon and am pretty happy with it. I think you could keep pretty much everything, but in a 10 gallon you have to be good about maintenance.

however the only draw back to the coralife 96 is the stupid fans. I find they are too loud. I wonder if it would be ok to disable them.

 

[G13]

I have the 96 watt fixture and I'm happy with it. The fans in my unit are not loud at all.......? I'll send you a pm and let you know the deal I got for it..........at least It was by far the best price I could find.

 

[fifty50]

before i upgraded to a 150w MH, i had the 2x40w dual satellite which i enjoyed.

 

[seacowboy]

not loud at all??? i can hear mine from 30 feet away and through a door. do i just need to get in there and see whats making the noise? like its not ballanced correctly or something isn't fastened tight enough

 

[G13]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8235625#post8235625 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by seacowboy
not loud at all??? i can hear mine from 30 feet away and through a door. do i just need to get in there and see whats making the noise? like its not ballanced correctly or something isn't fastened tight enough

My fixture is 3 months old, how old is yours? Maybe they had a problem with the fans a while back. If it's really that loud, I would open it up and try to see if it's a fixable problem. As long as it's not connected to a power source you won't have nothing to worry about. Why not try and replace the fans (call aqualight/coralife and see if they know of a solution)?

I was thinking of adding a couple fans on the empty vents when I first recieved it but I have no heat issues.

 

[seacowboy]

ok so today i went in. I unscrewed the side panel on the side that has the fans. I popped the fans out and I tinkered around with them as best i could. That really means I wiped dust off. The Fan has two pieces of plastic attached to it. The one below the unit which has four prongs that stick up through it and the top which is visible during normal viewing. So when I take both of those off the fans are fairly quiet, but still there is a slight high pitch whine. Is there supposed to be some sort of vibration dampner in there or something that i am just missing?

My unit is only 6 months old so I dont think it could be a manufacturing problem but who knows.

 

[G13]

I've never opened mine up to see inside but my system makes no high pitch noise. Sorry, I can't be much help.