Lighting and Flow for FOWLR?
- Thread starter Tobman
- Start date
marrone
New member
The flow really depends on the type of fish that your going to have. Since this isn't a reef tank you don't need heavy flow just good water movement. As for the lights you could go with Regular FO bulbs or a PC bulbs setup and use a mixture of 10k, Triton, 50/50 bulb and an actinic bulbs. Once again it depends on the fish you plan on keeping and since this isn't a reef tank you don't need to lights for the corals just to make the fish and the tank look nice.
Recife
New member
Well, you will need more lighting for the LR if you want coralline growing on it.
Some people say the purpose of LR in a FOWLR tank is just for the biological filtration. That's fine and you wouldn't need any light for that, well you will need just enough to "see" the fish. A single fluorescent bulb would do in that case.
I want my LR to have colors though and you will want to have 2-3 watts per gallon there, depending on the height of the tank. I would recommend Power compacts as they are cheap to run, compact and easy to install. Look for coraline aqualight. They are not really expensive.
Regarding flow, the better circulation you have in the tank the more you will help clean the fish waste and the more fish you will be able to have there. People tend to say FO ranks require less filtration than a reef tank. I don't agree with that as fish deposit a lot more bio load in the system than corals. So the more fish you have in the tank the more circulation and filtration you will need.
After doing a lot of research, my conclusion is that 10 times the volume of the tank is ideal for a big tank (of around 100 gal).
Some people say the purpose of LR in a FOWLR tank is just for the biological filtration. That's fine and you wouldn't need any light for that, well you will need just enough to "see" the fish. A single fluorescent bulb would do in that case.
I want my LR to have colors though and you will want to have 2-3 watts per gallon there, depending on the height of the tank. I would recommend Power compacts as they are cheap to run, compact and easy to install. Look for coraline aqualight. They are not really expensive.
Regarding flow, the better circulation you have in the tank the more you will help clean the fish waste and the more fish you will be able to have there. People tend to say FO ranks require less filtration than a reef tank. I don't agree with that as fish deposit a lot more bio load in the system than corals. So the more fish you have in the tank the more circulation and filtration you will need.
After doing a lot of research, my conclusion is that 10 times the volume of the tank is ideal for a big tank (of around 100 gal).
marrone
New member
I order to get coralline on the rock you need more than just lights you need to make sure you Cal & Alk are high to grow it. This is some thing that is really not needed in a FOWLR tank.
Circulation and filteration are two different things. You can have great filteration without huge cirulation and water movement in the tank. People get caught up on circulation, water turnover and water movement in the tank verse filteration and having a proper setup.
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