well this is my first post on this site so a little about myself i started out with a 3gl. tank then up to a ten now ive started my new 55gl. my only concern is my lighting my ten i used pc lights this tank im using t-5 4x46inch at 54 watts per lamp do all of you think that will be enough?
its a start ... but that all depends on what you intend to keep under that lighting.... currently thats all i have on my 135... softies do really well under it ... but my hard stuff tends to just hang on for life.... im upgrading and adding a few more t5 or may just change to MH .. still up in air at this point . decide what you want to keep.. and dont skimp on bulbs...
thanks for the info not sure on what kinda bulbs yet but will be mostly zoos and shrooms with a few softys
4 T5's well beplenty for what you want, if you want to keep acros I would reccomend an 8 bulb hood, could get by with six but would have to be conscous of placement on some light demanding corals as you would have 162 watts of light for every 2 ft.
bigdog, If they have individual reflectors instead of one big flat one it is a huge plus. With just four bulbs you will be surprised the color and growth you get. Make sure you have good quality bulbs. For a four bulb setup I would recommend one ATI BLUE PLUS, one GIESSEMANN 11K AQUABLUE , one 10K AQUASUN PLUS, and one 75/25 14K AQUABLUE both by UVL. This will give you a good color to the tank as well as cover most of the spectrum well. If you were to add two more I would look at GIESSEMANN 6k MIDDAY SUN bulbs and run them on a seperate timer in the middle of my cycle. For instance if you ran your light from 12 noon till 9 pm I would run the MIDDAY from 3 to six or so. Coral love the lower color temp as it recreates the light in the shallow reef beds. You will have enough blue in the other four bulbs to offset the yellow of the 6k pretty well. Ever notice the sun is neither blue nor white? FISHERMAN is pretty keen on these t5's as he runs them over a beautiful 210 or 240 (can't remember which John). He can maybe shoot you what he is running over his. BTW all these lamps can be purchased at www.reefgeek.com
This is plenty of light for keeping softies in a 55 gallon tank. A 6 or 8 bulb fixture is not a possibility as these fixtures are often too wide for a 55 gallon (standard 12" Width). Unless the fixture has the worst reflector ever, they will provide enough light for almost anything, with correct placement. A good friend of mine successfully maintained a 55 with a four bulb TEK fixture (talk to sdf beanhead for pricing and purchase information), and kept many different Acropora, as well as T. crocea and T. maxima clams.
On my sun-tek 8 bulb hood the bulbs have a 13 1/2" spread to them, if you count 6 bulbs, there is a 10" spread. Now the hood itself is wider, but unless you are wanting to mount it in a canopy, you could run a 8 bulb if you wanted too on a 55 gal. My suggestion would be atleast a 6 bulb T5 hood or 2 150 MH's and even better2- 175's or 250's if you are going to keep clams and want to keep them on the bottom even in a 55 , as the depth is if my memory is right is about 20-21" of water. If you are going to stick with a 4 bulb hood I would raise the Max. and crosea clams on the reef and run 6500 or at the most 10 k bulbs on 2 of the lamps for penatration and no pure actinics, but 50-50's on the other 2 as actinics have very little penatration. I'm not saying you can't keep these clams on the bottom with a 4 bulb hood, BUT is it the best situation for them?., No. Here this may help answer some questions and he states as that atleast a 36" T5 hood is needed as you can't get a 24" in anymore then a 4 bulb hood, meaning more then 4 bulbs is suggested. I have a crosea and a ultra maxima under 250 HQI lighting on the bottom of my 240. with 21" of water depth. http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1072234 So I guess with a 4 bulb 48" hood the key would be placement on the reef up higher and bulb selection for light penatration'
dimension on TEK fixtures..... 4 bulb 48 47x12 x2.5 6 bulb 48 x 15.75 x 2.5 8 bulb 48 x 19.5 x 2.5 and fyi.. Sunblaze 8 bulb 48 x 17.5 x 2.5 and yes blake can get all of the above.... email him for pricing Blake@christmascoralfarm.com
