Lightins 4 6f tank

[tigger928]

I have a 6foot tank with no canopy just glass top and a 48" 2 bulb fluresent light on top of that. I have only fish and 3 shrooms a star polyp group and like 4 orange polyps. I do sooner or later want to make it a real reef tank but have to do it slowly. I would like to get some good lighting going before i get all the live rock and corals. Any one out there have any good ideas. And no I dont want to put a canopy on it. Thanx

Tigger

 

[wpecoul]

Why are you opposed to any sort of canopy. Having glass tops will adversely effect several things in your system - light transmission, gas exchange and temperature. You could build a wooden canopy with a hinge front that would be attractive and hold whatever lighting you'd like at the proper distance from the water surface.

BTW, since you asked, for now I would use 4x54W T5 HO's running on an Icecap 660 ballast. You could stagger the bulbs to cover the middle 4 feet fully and the foot on each ends decently for mushrooms, etc. Once/if you decide to try to move onto corals that like more light, I'd add either 175W SE MH bulbs or 150W DE MH. If your tank is 100G but 6 feet long, it is probably so shallow that you will have a hard time getting enough spread from 2 MH fixtures.

 

[edwar050]

Check these out
http://www.hellolights.com/488lateklit5.html

www.reefgeek.com

I think T-5's with HQI halides would look pretty nice.