Hood with Compact Lighting

[alienz1]

I was wondering what height I should have these bulbs above the water's surface? And how many watts would be suggested for a 55gallon? Sorry if that's too general :

Paul

 

[pez]

The question in of itself can be answered, but it does beg the question of what type of corals do you plan to keep in the system? As for your questions, the average is 6-8" above the water and 4-8 watts/gallon. But it DOES depend on your tank size (depth primarily) and the type of corals you will be keeping (assuming you will be keeping corals).

-Tom

 

[alienz1]

I plan to be just keeping Soft Corals for the most part, Colt, Xenia, Leathers, and there's an anenome in there. It's a 55gallon, should a 50/50 ratio on dayligh/blue do well? or more daylight?

 

[Court Jester]

The anenome is going to be the limiting species when it comes to lighting so I'd shoot for at least 6w/gal. I'd place the hood directly on the top of the tank. I'd also use 10k/actinic bulbs with maybe an extra actinic in there (will give a blue/white look).

 

[Anonymous]

Do you already have this anemone? What lighting do you presently have? What kind of anemone is it?

I would say no matter what you are keeping/going to keep I would put the PC lighting as close as possible.

Four 96watt PCs would be best at a 50/50 rate. But if you are gonna spend that much I would get two 175watt MH or 150watt HQIs for a little more(well maybe more than a little). But worth it in the long run.

 

[esmithiii]

Ok, I guess I will give you my watts/gal spiel, again.

Watts per gallon is a terrible measure of lighting. What is important is the following:
<ul type="square">[*]Height of tank[*]Distance from lights to water[*]Types of lighting (MH, NO, VHO, PC, Etc)[*]Height of liverock in the tank[*]Lenght and width of tank[*]Reflectors used[*]Intensity of bulbs[*]Spectrum of bulbs[*]Orientation of bulbs[*]Type of livestock you wish to keep
[/list]

Using the term watts/gallon oversimplifies the issue too much.

If you are talking about a standard 55g w/ a 4" sand bed, lots of LR stacked high w/ bulbs 6" off the water and you plan on keeping softies and a couple anemones, and you insist on PC lighting I would suggest the following:

4 x 65W PC Daylight
2 x 65W PC Actinic

If you use 96W PCs, they are 3' long and will not cover the entire length of the tank. You will have dark edges (6" on either side) if you go with the 96W bulbs. I would arrange them like this:

Rear of tank

DDDDDDDDDDDD DDDDDDDDDDDD
AAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAA
DDDDDDDDDDDD DDDDDDDDDDDD

Front of tank

unless you have your liverock stacked against the back wall, in which case you might consider the actinics up front like this:

Rear of tank

DDDDDDDDDDDD DDDDDDDDDDDD
DDDDDDDDDDDD DDDDDDDDDDDD
AAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAA

Front of tank

Just my $0.02

Ernie

 

[Dan81]

Look at AHsupply.com they have good deals on PC's