[ghostface]

for the 90 gallon i purchced,the only lighting i have picked up is that compact lighting strip.They have 2 65 watt bulbs two on each side.black and acetinic.is this enough to keep a sucessfull reef tank?

[icemark]

As a rule of thumb you typically will want 3 to 5 times the tank size in lighting for softies in a reef setup, and if you are thinking of hard corals and or Clams some people suggest 10 times is about right. So for your tank that might mean 300 watts minimum and around 900 watts for clams.

other additions to the rule of thumbs:

If the tank is over 12 to 15 inches deep you would want to use VHO or PC lighting, they will work deeper at less intensity, but if the tank is over 18 inches deep your best bet is Halide lighting.

There of course are plenty of exceptions to these rules (for example the people at GARF sware that the grow hard corals without any problems using NO florescent lighting).

So some of reef keeping lighting is playing around to see what works best with your set up. You might try those PC's you have for now with some 'shrooms or preditary Gorgonians for now. Or add a couple of the LOA fixtures in conjunction to what you already have.



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Mark

Play Well