Lighting ?

J

jarock

Reefing newb
Hi i need a little help on lighting if any can maybe give me some advice on what type of lighting i need for a 55 gallon tank
 
It completely depends on what your goals for your tank are, and what you plan on keeping. You'll need less light if you only plan on keeping a FOWLR tank whereas, if you plan on keeping LPS or SPS you'll need a different setup.
 
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What does LPS and SPS mean ? Im not having a FOWLR tank , my goal for my tank is to have a community tank with anemones, soft coral as well.
 
The "best" most cost effective is probably going to end up being T5's good for most corals and inverts, yet not as expensive as MH. Will really bring out colors as well.
 
LPS stands for Large Polyp Stoney, exmples are bubble corals, hammer corals, and candy canes

SPS stands for Small Polyp Stoney, examples are birdsnests, acropora, montipora

LPS tend to be easier to take care of than SPS

Softies like mushrooms and zoanthids are easy to take care of and very hardy.

Also, anenomies are very difficult to keep. I would get the hang of doing the maintanance on your tank before you get one. They are very sensetive to swings in water parameters and high nitrates.
 
+1 BJ starting corals would be mushrooms and zoas, anenomies need an established tank of generally 1 year to thrive and do well.
 
most people say that anemones require MH lighting. clams also require MH's. although they produce the most heat and are least effecient out of all the lighting. and may run the electric bill up slightly more than other types of lights.

t5s produce less heat and you can keep LPS and some SPS as long as its high in the tank. make sure you get the high outputs though. they are much better than the normal outputs.

i dont know much about power compacts. i have just heard a lot of people dont like them.
 
As far as what I've heard, PC lighting is basically on it's way out. I have heard of quite a few people keeping Anemones with T5 but, they are far and few between. LED is always an option too (as long as money isn't an issue), it has a HIGH initial cost but, the major benefits are low operating costs, high outputs (from the few models I've seen), and virtually no bulb changes.
 
If you go t5, make sure they have individual reflectors. Light out put is increased dramatically versus one single reflector.

Also, 150 watt MH will cost just as much as 150 watt t5 or even 150 watt incandecent. A watt is how much energy is being used.
 
If you are handy, I have a list of all required materials to put together a 6 bulb HO T5 light system, everything comes from the HomeDepot. Then, you just add bulbs with those of your choosing, its roughly 40 bucks per pair of HO T5 lighting in the system.
 
You are lucky if your home depot caries t5 end caps.

I had to order mine from 1000bulbs.com pretty cheap
Got the ballast from there too.
Got some reflectors for 10 bucks a piece from some other website cant remember off the top of my head
 
the dual bulb t5 ho unit is about $30 per 24 in strip. After that all thats left is the scrap wire, which will run you about $2 a switch for $3, and a grounding plug for about $4. I can be more specific, but i ran this 2x T5 HO unit which were 24 in ea, the 48 if I remember right, was roughly $45. I can be more specific just send me a pm I'll gather all the info for you.
 

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