lighting recommendation

[nanocurious]

I am interested in keeping a 10g soft coral set up with some gsps, mushrooms, and some zoo's, but funds are limited , and I was wondering if anyone can give me a good recommendation for lighting that will give me just enough wattage to keep these types of corals without breaking the bank? All replies will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Neal

[qfour20]

Do you have access to tools, and have a little bit of time and woodworking experience?

 

If so, your best bet would probabbly be to build a hood to go over the tank and place some incandescent sockets in it.

 

Get (at least two) 20W 6500K "curlie" pc lights from home depot (or other place) and put them in the hood.

 

It won't look near as nice as a tank that has actinic lights, but it will definitely get the job done. And hey, when funds are available, you can put in a small actinic bulb, or even replace the curlies with better lights down the road.

 

Look in the "DIY" forum, and you'll find a lot of threads about hoodbuilding, and using the screw in "curlie" lights.

 

Hope this helps.

 

-q

[nanocurious]

Hey qfour20 thanks for the reply, I really appreciate the advice, but the downside is that my diy skills aren't as atuned as others

so it leaves me kinda limited in that respect , I was thinking of using 2 cl pc 20 watts in an icandescant hood but the feedback I got from others was negative, I like them because the are both 50/50 bulbs and are relatively inexpensive, but I am not sure if they will work for what I am doing( at least temporarily any way)I hate to ask, but "Do you think this will work for this situation?"

[qfour20]

I can tell you with certainty that the coralife lights will work for your situation, at least temporarily.

 

I have an AGA 10gal (building an 18 tall), and I have 2 of the coralife screw in PC bulbs in the stock hood. It works quite well for softies (gsp, zoos, yellow polyps).

 

The only thing that I would say bad about them is that they are kinda pricey. The will, however, hold you over while you convince a friend of yours to help you with the wood working

 

Good luck!

 

-q

[nanocurious]

Thanks q I was thinking of using them because when I go back to school I won't be able to afford to use anything else for a long while, that is part of the reason why I only want to keep softies, because I might not get to upgrade until school is finished. I was also wondering, how much heat do the corallife's put off, I will am going to use a heater, but don't know if it will be too much ?

[qfour20]

The coralife bulbs don't put off a whole lot of heat. They do make the top of the hood warm, but not *hot*.

 

I would definitely plan on having a fan of some sort blowing across the top of the hood. This not only keeps things under control thermally, but also improves gas exchange greatly.

 

-q