how much light is too much light? (is it even possible?)

[LadyClown]

I've been thinking of upgrading my Walmart 10gal canopy froma 15W fluorescent strip to a 50/50 retrofit.

 

My questions are:

1) Would that work (will I melt the thing down) ?

 

2)Will a 50/50 light be ok, or should I have a lot more light in there?

 

3) how much light is necessary, and is there anything like too much light? (I was thinking I might just use those daylight bulbs from Walmart (like in the thread

 

How To: Make a 19 watt 6500k bulb/fixture

 

)

 

4) If I were to make a new canopy, would I be able to go to Menards/HD and have them cut the wood to size? how about with the 45 degree angles (if that's not asking too much) ?

 

Thanks

[jflysmooth]

First of all, the bulbs are from Home Depot not wallyworld. Over a 10 gallon you can run a lot of stuff with a 32/36 Watt 50/50 retrofit. I used to have two 32 50/50's and a 15 watt NO actinic over my 10. One 50/50 and you should be able to keep most soft corals just fine. With two you can prolly keep some LPS and such too... just look in the members tank section and see what other people have over their 10 gallon tanks. Check out BrooklynJohnny's tank.

[Phish]

I have 96watts over my tank, but if you were to go 70-85watts that would be really good, you cold keep almost anything. Also pick what you want know, because you may find that you want some high level light/current corals, and low level light/current and if you smother the tank with light, you may not be able to keep some low light corals.