Lights in a 40 gallon tank

[scooter]

I was wondering if this system was sufficient or would I have to change the lights in it.


COMPACT FLUO. STRIP LIGHT 36" 110W -



Our new Compact Fluorescent Strip-Lites are the latest design and feature an electronic ballast that is UL® Listed for outdoor use. Of course you can't use these strip-lites outdoors, but by having an outdoor rated ballast that is fully "potted" guarantees that it will easily survive high humidity locations. The included GE® 9325° Kelvin 55 watt lamp is brand new and has the same color output as the GE® Fresh & Saltwater lamps we put in all our lights. It is an excellent tri-phosphor lamp with high output and a beautiful color for fresh or saltwater aquariums.

[icemark]

First off, Welcome on board

2nd: Depends on what you want to keep. That light would be fine for most fish and some soft corals such as 'shrooms and the like.

Hard corals or the more brighly colored softies will need considerably more light than that.

[scooter]

I would like to keep pretty much all kinds of corals. Well as much as I can fit into my tank. So are there any suggestions any and all would be appreciated.

[PerryinCA]

I would recommend at least 250w MH. One on a Spider-light style parabolic reflector will allow you to keep anything you want. 400w would likely be even better.

here is a pic from therman's 40 gallon with 400w MH:

To see more of his great pics checkout http://www.reefaholics.com/Therman/

People may say X is too much light to keep X. Thats bull, with proper acclimation any coral will do fine with higher intensity lighting. IMO I would put the money you are thinking about buying the PC's with toward a MH setup. If you don't now, you will in the long run. There is absolutly nothing wrong with PC, or VHO, but they aren't very cost efficient (purchasewise). For a little more money you get more intensity, and you wouldn't be limited in the type of animals you could put in there. With the lighting you outlined, you probably couldn't keep any SPS, and I wouldn't recommend trying it.

Alternatively, using two of the fixtures you outlined would be a nice setup. But, they won't be as easy to use when you upgrade tanks (and trust me, once you get bit by the bug, you will upgrade ).

-Perry

[chromis]

I have a similar fixture on my 55. I am just using it until I get around to building a hood for 2 X 250 watt Iwasakis. Then I will butcher the fixture for the ballasts and sockets and change the bulbs to actinic. If you dont want MH then just get 2 of those fixtures, you can keep anything under 2 of those. However for MH, I would reccomend a 400 watter on a nice reflector. You could keep softies on the edges of the tank.

Andrew

[SKRIZ]

scooter!

I had the exact same setup on my 30g...still do actually!! It works fine for softies and my bubble tip anenome is doing well too.

But, I would check out www.ahsupply.com, they are much cheaper, if you dont mind building your own hood (or you can get a cheap enclosure from home depot..just use one of their flourescent fixtures!) if you want to be able to keep more stuff, get the 2x96 setup. You will eventually upgrade...i just bought my 250w iwasaki. if done diy, the mh is cheaper. i am planning on putting together my ballast soon, so, if you're interester, let me know, i can probably build one for cheap...or tell you where to get the stuff.

[djheywood]

I have a 26 show (Same length and height just not as deep as a 40) with 2 X 55watt PC's from Custom Sea Life. I have kept leathers, polyps, mushrooms, xenia, bubble coral, torch coral, brain coral, and 3 different varieties of SPS. Everything is doing great. I agree MH would be better, and you prob will want to upgrade in the future so just do it now, but my point is you can keep a wide variety of corals with PC lighting, you just won't see as intense coloration or growth rates on SPS corals.

Good luck.

[SHUMALA]

No offense, but the AGA 110W PC is a piece of junk. I had it for 2 months before switching over to MH. The colour spectrum does not look good at all. It casted a purplish pink light over my tank.

Other than that, if you wish to buy real PC bulbs for it, then I guess it could work and saves you work for building a top for your tank.

HTH,

Alan

[FishTechie]

scooter welcome to Reefland, i slid your thread over to the Lighting area so you can maybe get more responses...

[SKRIZ]

oh, i forgot to mention that i changed the bulbs to the smartlamps. i didnt think that the stock ones would ahve the spectrum i wanted.

[scooter]

I had ordered 2 50/50 k yesterday so I'll see how that turns out. Thanks for all of the info and suggestions

[naser]

cant beat metal halides!!!! i have two 55 watt pc's and one 400 watt 10k bulb. on a 55 gallon. everone at my lfs laughs at me.. but i believe that the corals love it.

[scubadude]

Hi Scooter

Welcome to Reefland!

I have a 90gal reef and a 20gal reef....both of them have MH's.....I wouldnt fly any other way


Perry:

Beautiful pic!!

[dieselboy]

FWIW, I have a friend with a 40 who's got 2X175W 5500K's and 2 Icecap'd VHO's, all under a PFO reflector, and his tank looks great and he's able to grow anything in it. He had PC's in the past, but since he upgraded to VHO's and MH, he regretted he hadn't done it sooner. I have a 50 with 2X400W Iwasaki with no actinic...I like it, but I need some VHO's for color. He might be buying my old setup though, which gives me the chance to upgrade to 2X400W 20K's....

Get the halides!