Lighting Question

[shortcut]

First let me describe my "project".  I want to build a (I dont know if it can be considered a micro reef or not but) micro reef with my 30 gallon tank.  What I plan on getting is some live sand, live rock, and CPR BakPak skimmer, I figure this will take care of my filteration needs.  My question are...does this setup sound like it if should work?  Why dont reef tanks need bio filteration besides the live rock?  What happens if I use Bio balls with a reef and skimmer?  My other main question is lighting.....what lighting should I use?  I was thinking first about getting two 55 watt compacts but then read about metal halide,  I have finally decided on getting one 175 watt metal halide pendant with a 20000k bulb.  Would this be too much even if I keep it a few feet over my reef?  I am also planning to upgrade that tank to a 60 gallon(when I can afford it)some time.  Would this lighting be enough for that size tank?  Last and final question....I heard that if you use high kelvin halide lights you dont need actinic blue tubes....whats the deal with this? What exactly do the actinic blue tubes do?

[eddielopez]

Hey,

 

Blue light is very important in a reef tank, this is the one that corals use. It's also nice to see the "shining stuff" more cool (like neon colors on corals, and white stripes on clownfish).

 

BTW, you should use "[ b ]" instead of "< b >" in your signature to get it bold.

 

HTH,

 

Eddie

=o)

[Korova]

Atinic lighting reproduces the sunlight that corals get between 20'-40' of water. At this depth the "red spectrum" is filtered-out by the water. So the addition of an Atinic bulb to one's aquarium lighting will add to the health of their coral. I normally use the 50/50 method, 1 Atinic bulb and 1 10k bulb. The 10k bulb is a (filtered white). The 10k bulb isn't as important, one can use (6500 kevlin white and up) mixed with Atinic and achieve great results. The 20k MH bulb you mentioned is a fairly new product, I've heard it has such a "blue hue" some people are adding "white light" so they can view details in the aquarium. When I look for a MH set-up, I look for 6500-10k MH bulbs, for two reasons. First, they are "cheaper" and easy for the customer to find at "Most" online stores. Second, I would rather have the MH bulb on the white spectrum so the Atinic bulbs can be controlled separately. This is so one can turn the Atinics "on" an hour prior to the MH bulbs coming on, kinda simulating sunrise and sunset, instead of going from midnight to "high noon" in 10sec. I'm no "Lighting expert" but this has always worked well for me...=)

[Korova]

Also,  (1) 175-watt MH kit should be fine over a 30-gallon aquarium as long as you acclimate the corals properly…

[GasMunky]

Seriously, if you are going to upgrade to that larger tank anyway, I'd suggest saving up until you can get that tank.  It'll save you a lot of time and money.  And even some headaches! :-P