Do I need more lighting

[Nimboli12]

Im wondering if I need more lighting. A few posts ago Littlefish said 4-5 wtts per gallon should be used. That would be 300 watts then . Im staying with fish & soft corals., I I only have 156 wtts now. (4)t5's @ 39 wtts ea. 1 led light for at night.

So I should add more t5s to bring it up to 300 watts? Also, am I going to need a reflector? I really don't want to have to put a cooler on the top. I have a canopy top so that would be difficult.

My lights come on @ 630 am & go off @ like 1;30pm. Should they be on longer?

Wow. What alot of questions.

 

[little_fish]

The light period is fine, but you have a nem so you are already way out of the soft corals and fish league.

I would consider adding more light, but as long as them nem is near the top you might be ok.

Reflectors are always nice to have

 

[Nimboli12]

This is my nem. As you can see he's at the top. How many of you have reflectors and what kind should I get for a 60 g?

 

[marcah]

I would look into a light like this one
Catalina Aquarium
call and talk to JIM he is great to deal with...:D
AS Hannah said you are past just softies and fish now since you put in the Nem..

 

[Northstar24]

You do realize that light wise Anemone's are pretty much the most demanding animal we keep right? Also, stay on top of your water quality, Anemone's get unhappy in bad water, and they can do all sorts of damage to other living things in your tank when they go south, including fish

If you're planning on sticking with T5's (which is fine) look for a fixture that has individual reflectors for the bulbs, this will dramatically increase the usable light you get out of the fixture. I would think that bare minimum you'd want a 4 bulb with IR's, but you should probably be looking at a 6 bulb fixture with IR's

 

[Nimboli12]

Thank You Northstar. I didn't realize that but Im glad your brought it to my attention, My salinity is now @ .025. My Ph, ammonia Nites & trates are all wher they are supposed to be. I do a water change every week and today I'll be doing that. He was fully opened a few minutes ago so I fed him some myses shrimp.

Also my tank is only 13 ' deep. I have a canopy & a pane of glass that attaches from front wall to back wall of my tank as a shelf (if you will). So I think that will be in the way along with my canopy for a reflector.

So what Im saying is 2 more T5s and I'll see what that does to the temp of my tank. Right now its at 78-79. Can I turn down my heater a little to adjust for the heat .

IWouldn't 4-8 watts of lighting be too much for 13" of water?

 

[Nimboli12]

Oh & Marcah thank you for your info. I will call him:D

 

[Northstar24]

Thank You Northstar. I didn't realize that but Im glad your brought it to my attention, My salinity is now @ .025. My Ph, ammonia Nites & trates are all wher they are supposed to be. I do a water change every week and today I'll be doing that. He was fully opened a few minutes ago so I fed him some myses shrimp.

Also my tank is only 13 ' deep. I have a canopy & a pane of glass that attaches from front wall to back wall of my tank as a shelf (if you will). So I think that will be in the way along with my canopy for a reflector.

So what Im saying is 2 more T5s and I'll see what that does to the temp of my tank. Right now its at 78-79. Can I turn down my heater a little to adjust for the heat .

IWouldn't 4-8 watts of lighting be too much for 13" of water?

You dont install a reflector on a T5 fixture, they are built into the fixture themselves. The better T5 fixtures will have one reflector in the fixture for each bulb, instead of one single reflector for the entire fixture. If you are running T5's now you must have some sort of reflector already, unless you're running some sort of retro fit setup

 

[Nimboli12]

Is this what you mean by retro fitted? As you can see my canopy comes right down on top of that glass plate so I don't think I have enough room for a reflector with the lights inside it. We had to put these lights in ourselves w/these bracketts.

Again, my tank is only 13 's from sand to top of water. So wouldn't 234 watts be enough light?

 

[Nimboli12]

Iive been told to remove all my T5s and just go with LED's. Ive been told I don't have to worry about the heat from LED's. Also, can someone explain the wattage thing on LED's as to Metal Halides? Or, can I just add LED's to the Tf's I have already to bring my wattage up to at least 300 wtts.?

My pics are a couple of posts ago. Remember my tank is only 13"s from sand to top.
I really want to get this lighting right asap.
Thanks

 

[Northstar24]

Those would be considered a retro fit I believe. It looks like they don't run reflectors (I don't know much about retro-fitted setups, as I have always just run a full fixture over my tank)

As far as LED go, generally you do not have to worry about heat transfer from them to the tank, unlike T5 or Metal Halides - this is true

If your tank is only 13 inches deep, you might be fine with a retro fit setup. It looks like you have room to add another two bulbs, or do something with LED

Wattage for LED is not really comparable to MH or T5 - in that you need a lot less wattage in LED (when properly choosen) to have a similar output to MH/T5. To give you an idea, I replaced ~1000 watts of a combination of MH/T5 with just 225 watts of LED that I can't run much more than 75% - but my fixture runs 3W LED's with a combination of 40 degree and 70 degree optics

On a shallow tank like yours, you could potentially use stunner strips and just mount them to your canpopy (similar to the LED's you already have). You would need to get some input from those that have used them - but I dont see why they wouldnt work on a shallow tank if you had enough of them.

You could also look into Par38 bulbs if you have enough clearance in the canopy, and the electrical know how to rig up a few standard light sockets in the canopy

 

[Nimboli12]

What are stunner strips?

 

[Nimboli12]

Well , I havc 44"s of length space still so If i got 2 more T5's (I think they come in 44") ) and was concerned about the heat they would put out maybe I could just turn down my tank heater to adjust. Would 244wtts on a 13" deep tank be sufficient lighting for all?