New Tank Lighting

[Mac73]

Hello All:

I have a forty six gallon bow-front tank that I would like to make a reef tank. I have a 150 watt MH light mounted in the center of the tank....Do I also need Fluorescent lighting or any other type of lighting? I have heard/read different opinions.

Thanks,

Mac73

 

[WaterKeeper]

Hi Marc
[welcome]

Much will depend on what you wish to keep. For the majority of things the 150 watt MH should be fine. I'd suggest one in the 8,000-10,000 K range. If you plan on corals that demand very high light intensity or perhaps clams then you can supplement that light with some T-5 fluoresent lamps. There you would mix actinic with some daylight bulbs. This mixed approach gives good color balance and better overall illumination throughout the tank. The The Lighting Thread will explain this in detail (painfully, agonizing detail ).

 

[jimbo045]

What Tom said is right. Should be fine, but it will depend on what you have in it.

 

[dchao]

Mac73:

I have a 46G bow-front too. The problem with a single MH is that the tank has a bracing in the middle and will cast a shadow right in the middle of the tank. I did't want to install two MH's. So at the end, I installed 4 x T5's (with parabolic reflectors).

 

[Mac73]

Thanks to all for the advice....DCHAO The brace was a problem for me too...I thought about cutting it out and then thought better of it. I now have it rigged with a 30 W 36" fluorescent actinic bulb which provides light for the whole tank and have the "clamp-on" Coralife MH angled in from the front, which provides good coverage throughout the tank. Hope this will work.

Mac73