Tropical Fish Forums

Flame Angel · Regulars Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Location: Sydney, Australia

Is there a rule or something similar to watts/gallon for flourescent tubes so I know how much I need? I am mainly just keeping soft corals. Is it based on watts or 'K'?
Cheers.

sirreal63 · Advisors Joined: 21 Feb 2004 Location: Meadowlakes, TX

WPG is not very effective for a measure. What size tank and we can go from there and what kind of soft corals? Mushrooms and polyps and such are pretty easy but LPS is not.
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Out on the road today...I saw a DeadHead sticker on a Cadillac...
Jack
110 Gallon DSA Pentagon

Flame Angel · Regulars Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Location: Sydney, Australia

Tank is 75 x 35 x45 cm (L x W x H).
These are the ones I have: (just in case there was going to be any confusion)
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=670
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=753
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=427 (surprisingly, this one is the healthiest)
I have another one that I bought, but I can't remember it's name and I can't find it on any websites.
I have some others that came on some live rock, but they are small and I'm not sure what they are, some type of softie.

sirreal63 · Advisors Joined: 21 Feb 2004 Location: Meadowlakes, TX

The Leather and the Brain will be the most light demanding.

What are your current lights? Are they Power Compacts or normal output ones? What is the total wattage and mix of bulbs?

That is what we would call a 30 gallon tank.
_________________
Out on the road today...I saw a DeadHead sticker on a Cadillac...
Jack
110 Gallon DSA Pentagon

Flame Angel · Regulars Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Location: Sydney, Australia

I currently have 2 'Hagen Power Glo's, and 1 blue actinic.
They are the normal output ones (I think...).
Each bulb is 25 watts, so total of 75 watts.

sirreal63 · Advisors Joined: 21 Feb 2004 Location: Meadowlakes, TX

Kind of on the low side for the brain and leather. For those corals and that size tank I would use at least 110 watts of power compacts as a minimum. I had 220 watts of pc's on my old 29 and it was enough for good growth and health. What is bright to our eyes is not bright for them.
_________________
Out on the road today...I saw a DeadHead sticker on a Cadillac...
Jack
110 Gallon DSA Pentagon

Atlantis · Members Joined: 27 Dec 2006

As u are talking about Lighting I have a question, I have a 20 g reef tank with compact light 1x 65w Straight pins 12000K Daylight PC Bulb, 1x 65W Straight pins True Actinic PC Bulb

Is it enough?? And How much time should I put them on per day? From now it was always 12 hour a day, from 9 to 9 but I have an algae probs, appears to be red slims algae so...was wondering if put them on about 9 hour a day would be better.

Tx in advance!

sirreal63 · Advisors Joined: 21 Feb 2004 Location: Meadowlakes, TX

There are many ways to set up a reef...for mushrooms and polyps that would be enough light. The red slime is cyano and is a sign of poor water conditioons and not enough movement and not related to lighting.
_________________
Out on the road today...I saw a DeadHead sticker on a Cadillac...
Jack
110 Gallon DSA Pentagon

Jason H. · New Members Joined: 01 Feb 2007

I was wondering... I have a 40 T and want to put 1 VHO white (75w) and 1 VHO blue actinic (75w) for a total of 150W, enought light? and SHOULD the white and blue actinic be of equal power? Right now its just a few damsels and hermitcrabs,, roughly 30lbs or liverock (will be adding more shortly), and just finishing the cycling, its been up for about 1 month, nitrites are just now falling off. With that much lighting, I want to put mushrooms, polyps and an anemone. Will that be enough light? I'm a noob to the saltwater world, so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Jason

wittd · Regulars Joined: 22 Feb 2006 Location: Lexington, KY

Typically in PC and other fixtures your white and blue are the same output.

1. If "the nitrites are just now falling off", then you haven't finished cycling. The cycle is not finished until the ammonia and nitrites have dropped back to zero. This being said, you really shouldn't have any life in the tank at all when it is so easy to fishless cycle. My first reccomendation would be to take the damsels and hermits back to the pet store and wait until your cycle is completely finished before you add any life. You also want to be careful when adding more live rock, because the die off could trigger a mini cycle.

2. Mushrooms can do well with lower light and might be OK and some polyps might be fine also. (for a true answer we need to defer this one to the advisors for additional help here)

3. What type of filtration and water circulation do you have (Protien skimmer?, wet dry?, mechanical filter?, power heads?) These will help determine if you are even capable of reasonably keeping any corals.

4. NO! NO! NO! NO! on the anemone. Not a chance of survival on that type of lighting. No anemone until the tank is at least a year old and well established and healthy with very high metal halide lighting and an extremely experienced reefer. Even then, they are better left on the reef. If you are dead set on getting an anemone, then check Floridaboy's recommendation in this post. Let me reiterate *NO LIVE ANEMONE*