starting a 30 gallon saltwater aquarium at home needing to get the lights so i can hold corals in my tank. what whattage do you recommend for a 30 gallon? Should they be metal halide?
lights for a 30 gallon aquarium?
- Thread starter Fishboy
- Start date
metal halide will make it to where you can house any corals. it really depends on what types of corals you want though. but MH or T5 are the way to go.
is there a wattage prefference?
Bifferwine
I am a girl
T5 will be better than metal halide for a tank that size. MH will really heat the tank up too much.
I have 6 HO T5 bulbs over my 46g and can pretty much keep anything I damn want. lol 
Agreed. T5 would be best because of your tank size.
I have a 30g tank. It's a tall version, so the footprint is 24" x 12" and it's 24" tall
I am using T5 HO lighting. I have (6) bulbs @ 24w each. That's 144w total.
I grow LPS, zoas, polyps and mushrooms. I could probably grow SPS, but I am not interested in SPS corals, so I'll probably never know.
I bought this light:
Catalina Aquarium
It comes with bulbs, moonlight LEDs and a remote control timer. It has individual reflectors for each bulb. Thats VERY important. Individual reflectors help focus the light much better than a single reflector for all 6 lights. The bulbs are cheap, but they worked for over a year before I replaced them. Corals grew just fine under the stock bulbs.
I replaced the bulbs with a combination of UV, Geissman and Coralife bulbs. My corals have REALLY taken on a much better color since the bulb change. I don't know if it was the higher quality bulbs or the fact that I changed the spectrum to a little bit more blue. Maybe a combination of better quality lights AND the color change?
I am using T5 HO lighting. I have (6) bulbs @ 24w each. That's 144w total.
I grow LPS, zoas, polyps and mushrooms. I could probably grow SPS, but I am not interested in SPS corals, so I'll probably never know.
I bought this light:
Catalina Aquarium
It comes with bulbs, moonlight LEDs and a remote control timer. It has individual reflectors for each bulb. Thats VERY important. Individual reflectors help focus the light much better than a single reflector for all 6 lights. The bulbs are cheap, but they worked for over a year before I replaced them. Corals grew just fine under the stock bulbs.
I replaced the bulbs with a combination of UV, Geissman and Coralife bulbs. My corals have REALLY taken on a much better color since the bulb change. I don't know if it was the higher quality bulbs or the fact that I changed the spectrum to a little bit more blue. Maybe a combination of better quality lights AND the color change?
