light me up

[jjgina]

I'm new to the saltwater thing and just converted my 35 gal from fresh to salt. I plan on it being a reef w/ fish and inverts.
I just ordered 2 compact flourescents, 55W each, this is enough right?
1-6400K bulb, 1- 10,000K actinic
How long do I put them on each day? 8-12 hrs

I read on the web that you need about 4-5 watts per gallon with reg. flourescents, but that the compacts put out more light.

What happens if you put too much light on a tank?

[SomeHairyOldGuy]

The only thing bad I can think of is if you have high phosphates then you would have a serious algea problem. Most corals especially sps's thrive under intense tight. I leave mine on for 12 hours.
SHOG

[scubadude]

I agree w/SHOG, I doubt you will be able to keep any SPS or clams, and you may even have a tough time with some LPS, but you should be able to keep most all softie corals w/out any problems. Just remember that it is a small tank and you dont have much room for error. As far as too much lighting on a tank goes, I wouldnt worry too much about that. Provided that you photo acclimate your corals most corals can deal with intense lighting and appreciate it.

[Northman_with_reef]

You should leave your lights on 6-7hours in the "maturing" fase, this will save you for alot of disapointments(algea blooms and the like).
After the maturing fase is over you can increase the lightning period slowly.

About the intenseity, I'd say that you can keep alot of coral species, but you should'nt take corals from tanks with high lightning intensities and put them in your tank.They'll problably die from lack of light...

And you should avoid clams, if you buy one and it looks like it's "streching" out of the shell in your tank, its not thriving, its trying too get more light too survive.