Lighting Question

[mapleredta]

Im trying to get all my ducks in a row before I start assembling my tank, now my question is. Its a 55 gallon tank and it came with both hoods and light bulbs. I kind of figured that wouldnt be enough lighting. There each 24" What does RC recommend?

 

[Dogfaced Puffer]

It depends on what corals you want to keep.

 

[Scuba_Steve]

I would pretty much rephrase that to it depends if you want to keep any corals. There are some low light ones out there, but if any can survive off that low it would be very few. Well with the exception of non photosynthetic corals like sun polyps, but those are all pretty advanced corals.

 

[Scuba_Steve]

Sorry i mis read. If you want to keep softies and a few lps, then a 4 65w bulb power compact light would be fine. For some sps 4 54w t5 flourecent. For all sps and clams, along with everything else, 6 54w t5 or 2 250w metal halides. With the halides you could also do 175 or 250w with pc, vho, or t5 actinic supplementation.

 

[bnhd3]

halides would be ideal. that is the way i would go. i hear that vho's and t5's are suitable, but i don't know that much about them. two nice halides and a couple of blue fluorescents would do the trick for just about anything you want.