Alan Scarborough Posted June 18, 2011 Share Posted June 18, 2011 I've decided to look for a new light system for my 55 gallon reef tank. I currently have a coralite fixture with a day light bulb and a coral bulb 28 watts and a zoomed 54 watt daylight and coral bulbs. Is this sufficient? I am new to the hobby and currently my coral and fish are in my 120gal. Ive built the reef almost all the way and have my corals and polops near the top. Would my current lights work in the 55 gallon? I want optimal lighting for my corals. Also, if I use my 120gal for saltwater fish only, what type of lights should I use? The tank is four foot long and three feet deep. Thanks in advance for any suggestions! Alan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Alvarado Posted June 18, 2011 Share Posted June 18, 2011 (edited) Alan, you're going to become frustrated with your options I've been struggling with the same question for 8 months. You have a ton of options, but the place to start with is telling us what kind of corals and livestock you wish to keep. Basically, we need to understand if you need low, medium or high intensity lighting. From there, there a dozens of options based on the dimensions and depth of your tank. All the different lighting options have different pros and cons, such as electricity use, heat generation, light output, spectrum, price so it is critical you let us know what you are going to want to keep, SPS hard corals, softies, LPS, Clams, etc. You can use any lighting that fits over the tank, and if you are already hosting corals with your current lighting setup, then you should be ok on the 55. Since you are going larger to smaller, that will work out positivity for you. Fish only tanks just need lights, the fish would be fine with any type of inexpensive lighting. Light the tank to your taste. I like the look of the doublebright LED lights for a fish only tank. Edited June 18, 2011 by Eric Alvarado Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Scarborough Posted June 18, 2011 Author Share Posted June 18, 2011 Thanks Eric for the reply, I currently have some sps, criptonite, love lace (could be wrong on the name), and some soft coral. I also have two anenomies a candalactus and a buble tip, moron clown, tomato clown, fox face rabbit, yellow tang, green chromis, domino damsil, feather worm, coral banded shrimp, peperment shrimp, star fish (sand shifters), hermet crabs and snails. I also have lunar eclipse pollops. The new tank is two feet deep and four feet wide. I also use sump filtration if that matters. Thanks again for the help! Alan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Scarborough Posted June 18, 2011 Author Share Posted June 18, 2011 Maroon clown....lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted June 19, 2011 Share Posted June 19, 2011 (edited) . . . I want optimal lighting for my corals. . . Bear in mind there have been many, many doctorial thesis on lighting so we are not even buffing the surface here. There's really is no such thing as "optimal" lighting. Some corals are highly adaptable others are not. If you are happy with the coral and lighting combination in your 120 by all means duplicate it in your 55. If you are wanting something different ask around and do some research to match your corals and light to each other. Dana Riddle and Joshi Sanjey have numerous articles on Advanced Aquarist looking at different aspects of lighting on reef aquariums. Looking at some of the LED fixtures while they are still expensive the payoff is around the 5, 6, 7 year mark so if they do last as long as they are being advertised you're easily looking at less than half the cost of T5's of MH over the life of the fixtures. Edited June 19, 2011 by Timfish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Scarborough Posted June 20, 2011 Author Share Posted June 20, 2011 Thanks for the reply, I was wondering could I only run the blue atinic lights for my coral and fish? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offroadodge Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 IMO, its all personal preference on the look and color you like. On a 55G anything from 6-8 T5s or MH (250W) will work. Also where you place the species. Whats your end result of what you want the tank to be? If stonies then more light. If softies less light. This is JMO, im not a professional, but i did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night....LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 (edited) Yes you can but I think there will be more of a guess factor in getting corals that will thrive under just actinics. A lot of corals utilize the red part of the spectrum and may not thrive long term under just blue. This doesn't mean you can't have reds. Corals that are flourescing red will be red under just blue light. Corals that are reflecting red will loose a lot of their color under blue light. This article http://www.advanceda...08/3/aafeature1 is about color and corals and while the first half may not be relevant to your question there are pictures of 11 corals grown under 20,000K MH, 10,000K MH and T5 and the ones that grew best under 20,000K or the ones that did well under all three would be possibilities. Edited June 22, 2011 by Timfish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 You "may" be able to sustain your corals under actinic only, but I think growth will stop and eventually your corals will recess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Scarborough Posted June 22, 2011 Author Share Posted June 22, 2011 Thank you all for your input. I have more understanding of lighting for my aquarium. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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