Lighting For Tampa Bay Live Rock

[teresad134]

i am going to start a saltwater aquarium (currently into fresh). i am seriously looking at the tampa bay saltwater live rock, sand, ets. i was going to do a fowlr tank for now so i could use the lights i have. i have extra lights so i was thinking of using four above the tank, but of course they are only regular fluorescents. if all i get all the extra goodies on the live rock will these lights support that life? just want to do this right the first time. i am researching as much as possible and asking a lot of questions.
thanks for the advice.

 

[figuerres]

Re: Lighting For Tampa Bay Live Rock

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9199807#post9199807 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by teresad134
i am going to start a saltwater aquarium (currently into fresh). i am seriously looking at the tampa bay saltwater live rock, sand, ets. i was going to do a fowlr tank for now so i could use the lights i have. i have extra lights so i was thinking of using four above the tank, but of course they are only regular fluorescents. if all i get all the extra goodies on the live rock will these lights support that life? just want to do this right the first time. i am researching as much as possible and asking a lot of questions.
thanks for the advice.

take your time, get all the gear ready....

really I'd say get a good set of lights, some things will live with low light but many things you will want need the "right" balanced spectrum of light wavelengths....

there are several popular ways to do it.

try to start with "what do you want to keep" first then build a plan of lights, pumps, skimmer etc... that will support that kind of reef.

for example: soft coral and shrooms -- may do just fine with just power compact lights.

staghorn / acro / clams -- you need MetalHalide and some kind of florecent (power compact / VHO or ....)

depends, study what kinds of corals normaly live in a given area of the reef, have common needs for water flow, light, temp and so on....

 

[teresad134]

THANKS FOR THE INFO. I MAY TRY TO GET POWER COMPACTS AS I THINK I WILL ONLY WANT SOFT CORALS FOR NOW.

 

[HowardW]

Good power compacts or T5's without the individual relectors should be good enough for everything that comes on the TBS rock, and for just about anything else you put in the tank with the exception of some of the high light requiring SPS corals and some clams.

 

[wickedfood]

So PC's are sufficent for the condy's that Richard often includes? I hear mixed things. Dr's Foster & Smith seem to think they require MH's. I gave mine away b/c my tank is a nano, but am cuirous as I plan an upgrade and would like to keep anemones.

Thanks!

 

[HowardW]

I don't keep condy's and understand they do like a good amount of light, however I don't think they would absolutely require MH's. I would place it high in the tank though if it doesn't move there on its own.

 

[JCote]

For what it's worth, here are a couple of pics of my tank - 40 gallon TBS. The lighting is a CF fixture with 1x96w 10K Full Spectrum and 1x96w actinic (192w total). They are on for about 8 hours with a moon light on for the balance of the time. I'm not sure if that's a good balance but it seems to be working so far...I started 9/2006.

John