Good and Cheap Lighting for soft corals and zoa?

[porksoda]

Well i want to get corals soon. All i want is soft corals. But my lights are not good enough from what ppl say all i have is a fixture with 1 48in 10'000K daybulb and 1 48in actinic bulb. All i want are like some zoa's and shrooms and maybe an anemone. Well thanks for the help. Also i dont have much money maybe a cheap setup. If you know any links to websites with cheap lights that will suit my needs let me know. Also if you are selling one let me know. I am looking for under $150.00 if possible. Well thanks everybody for the help.
ps. I am new to the lights thing so if you tell me something can u explain things to me? well thanks.

 

[pink_floyd]

As far as I know but i could be wrong.. but anemones like intense light i believe.... so you have to have to choose carefully what kind of lighting you pick..

 

[SitBackAndWatch]

go on ebay....and look for power compact aquarium lighting. Odysea makes a decent 240w light. and they have a 130w or so too. the 240 is great for softies, thats what i have.

 

[dustin323]

pink-floyd....I see him saying nothing about anemones.

If you want a cheap setup go with Odyssea. Some people will say they're not no good, but I've been having mine since August it is still working fine. This is the one I have, it will be plenty for most softies as well as Lps hard corals.

http://www.aquatraders.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=293

 

[tmplge]

Heres the anemone info brother http://www.carlosreef.com/AnemoneFAQ.pdf Lighting is not a issue with anemones, just a misconception. I owuld hold off on the purchase though until your tank is more settled. Good luck

 

[jetta]

tmplge- it says right in your article that you posted that metal halides are required for most anemones to survive.. they are photosynthetic, they need strong lights to survive.

 

[dustin323]

Oh yeah sorry about that. I didn't realize you had mentioned something about an anemone. Anemones do need a lot of light & perfect parameters. Metal Halide is best, but I do see people keeping them under T5s.

 

[RyanM]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8881246#post8881246 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tmplge
Heres the anemone info brother http://www.carlosreef.com/AnemoneFAQ.pdf Lighting is not a issue with anemones, just a misconception. I owuld hold off on the purchase though until your tank is more settled. Good luck

You must not have read your own link, They DO need intense
lighting, halides wouldnt be over kill.

This is from the link you posted. You should read it before giving anemone advice tmplge.


What light conditions do anemones need?
Anemones are shallow water, photosynthetic tropical inverts. They all require bright
lighting in order to thrive. A few species (E. quadricolor and S. haddoni) will thrive
under bright VHO fluorescent lighting, but for the most part all other species require very
bright lighting that includes metal halides.

 

[jbittner]

Not all anemones need intese lighting!! BTA will be perfectly fine under vho or PC. T5 are every bit as powerfull as MH (not to mention twice last twice as long). I would go with T5 ligthing (because you would only need 2 54 wt) to keep softies. You would also have room to upgrade if you get the SPS or LPS bug.