Lighting for a 10 gallon frag tank

blueblue48

New member
I recently made a new 10 and would like to make the old on a little frag tank for my rics and zoanthids and maybe eventually a toadstool or xenia or something. I found an 18" 40 watt T-5 light, i was wondering if this was going to be strong enough. right now im using 54 watts of DIY pc.
 
is it a normal 12 inch 10g tank? Im not sure where you found 18inch T-5 bulbs but most are 22.2inch long. it is going to cost more money to set up a t-5 system over the ten and you are just going to waste alot of light. i would go with either a 70w or 150w MHif you go 150w you could go with a nice 20k bulb and still have the par output to get good growth as well as great color.
 
umm 10 gallons are 20 inches long, and the T-5s are 18 inches so i figured it would work. its only going to be softies why would i need 150 watts of MH lol
 
sorry was thinking about a different tank with teh 12"...still i havnt seen a t-5 that is under 22.2" long. just thought it would look kinda funny over a tank that is shorter than the bulbs.

useing a 150mh would have a much better spread and create alot less shadows than a 70w mh. astetics is part of it as well as many softies can use much more light than most people give them before they go into photoinhabition.
 
he is talking about the current nova 2x20 fixture. at least i assume. i think it should be fine. i don't know what growth would be, but bulbs choices would only be 10k and 460nm
 
lol i dont know if its current but i've seen them 20''. Although i must agree that MH would be better because eventually, everyone will want to start fragging sps.
 
You might also be able to find a 70w halid retro for pretty cheap. At least that way you'll get a better growth rate with the softies and it'll be enough to keep the lower light sps if you should decide to grow those too.
 
I have some ge 6500k 100watt bulbs over my frags. They don't bring out the best colors to our eyes, but the growth rate is great. Many of the bulbs that people like to use to get coral colors to "pop" are not the best for growth rates. My armor of god zoa look better in the display, but I have found growth to be good under the GE. Bonus is that the bulb and shop light spot reflector cost about $10 total. When the bulbs start getting old I plan to replace house lights with them and put the new bulbs over the tank. No waste. :)
 
if that is the case and you can only afford that light i would recomend that you save your money untill you can order a better one. but if ou do get it look into getting a computer fan and power supply to put on it cause when t-5's get hot they loose effecency and light out put by something like 42% ish i believe i read.
 
Ok well i was under the impression that softies only need PC or T-5 to grow and be propagated. Im getting a job soon so i will go ahead and get T-5's, after i save some more money ill look into one of those viper clip on 70 watt mh's, has anyone used these?? how are they??
 
You can DIY a 70W metal halide for just a bit more than that light. Halogen spotlight, 70W ballast, a power cord, some wires and a bulb are all you need. Mine cost me $100 with good bulbs.
 
I just like the way they clip on to the tank. another thing i forgot to ask was if i frag a coral out of my 10 gallon reef with an 80 watt pc fixture, will it shock it too much to be moved to a 70 MH tank??
 
Yes, you will need to slowly get it use to higher light.
A lot of people like halides, but it is not needed for what you want to do. They are great for deep tanks because they can penetrate deeper into the water. pc is fine for softies, but costs more in the log run because the bulbs need replaced every 6 months, even if they are still shining light. The best person I have found for information on T5HO is grim reefer. He basically "runs" his own thread advising on T5's. Which type of bulb to get will be more of a personal preference. In a shallow tank with little room for lots of bulbs, I think T5 will give you the best flexibility to combine different bulbs to get the color you want from the corals. Here is his thread:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1384575
 
Thanks alot jadeguppy, I had it in my head that softies didnt need all that light but everyone was telling me the opposite.
 
blueblue48, you are correct indeed. although it would work, a halide on that tank would just be overkill for the corals you want to grow. the t-5's will be fine.
 
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