Lighting Help

[OCCFan023]

Ive been searching through these threads, and I have seen a few nano tank pics, and Im thinking of doing a 10 gallon nano tank. I see alot of lights being held up by like clear pros and its like in the air like 3 inches from the tank, why is this and what does it do. Im use t like the normal hood being placed on the tank. Also what would be a good setup for a 10 gallon?

 

Thanks in Advance

[Turk]

those clear thingies holding the lgihts up are jsut mounting legs. it allows for better dispersion of the light and keeps them from getting splashed. Most likely what you saw were Coralife power compact lighting. I've got a 10 gallon myself with 36 watts of power compact lighting. You don't neeed to go nuts with lighting on small tanks, contrary to what many people are gonna say. I keep soft corals as well as a couple hard corals under my lights and they do fine. Of course, better lighting will give you better coloration on many corals, but is not necessary to keep them!

 

Depending on what you're looking to do, you've got a ton of options. Easiest would be to buy a full lighting system (meaning already built) as opposed to a DIY deal. If I were to do my tank over again I prolly would get a more powerful lighting setup, maybe 96 watts. People will babble on about "watts per gallon" but ignore them. They're prolly the people who don't keep tanks, just talk about them

 

There are a couple websites you can check out to buy what you need. www.hellolights.com and www.drfostersmith.com are your best bets. They've got everything you could need (for the most part) as far as lighting goes.

 

I see you're from Jersey (me too). If you're from anywhere near Morris County I'd suggest going to Aquatic Visions in East Hanover. They're the best LFS in the area by far and they know their ####. If they don't have what you'd want they can order it for you. Its always good to talk to as many people as you can about getting started before you actually buy anything!

[OCCFan023]

I live in Monmouth County near Sea Bright, specifilcy Rumson. I ussualy go to Tropiquarium, and I did a run up to Abo****ly FIsh a week ago. Thanks for the reply im gonna do some more reasrch on all this stuff. I'' proably order something online or check out Tropiquarium. Thanks for the help, and those brackets do they fit all lighting things or only certain ones?

[OCCFan023]

i wehnt to the dr site, that helped alot, thanks again!

[OCCFan023]

if i were to do a fowlr tank, would a standard hood be fine with a bluer bulb like a 50/50 bulb

[Turk]

yeah thatd be fine. ive got 2 50/50 bulbs on my reef and it works jsut fine. FOWLR tanks don't need as intense a lighting setup as reef would for obvious reasons. But there is a good chance that you'll eventually wanna get corals its an addicition!

 

you may as well get a light strong enough for corals, because if you do eventually do corals you dont wanna have to go out and buy new lighting! Plus, stronger lights on a FOWLR is never a bad thing, jsut be sure to keep some macro algae (which can be quite attractive looking) to compete with nusiance algaes. Live rock gets mighty colorful, and stronger lights can help get those rocks nice and purple/red/blue/green/etc

 

but yeah, you'd be fine with a standard hood

[OCCFan023]

Now I cant wait for chirstmas so I can make my nano tank. And now I also cant wait to get that 200 gallon tank!