Lighting recommendations for irregular tank

[Dave MN Nano]

I have a 20 gallon very tall tank. 20" wide x 10" deep x 24" tall. Very tall for a rather small footprint. I want to grow corals, at least soft and sps. What light should I use? Thinking about Ocean Revive T247-B. Or is that too strong or too wide???

[dling]

Have you looked at the Orphek Atlantik V4 compact ? Maybe two for spread. BRS has a good review of them.

[Dave MN Nano]

Thanks. That is a sweet light, but $850 for light and controller is way pricey. I am hoping to spend a lot less. 

[ajmckay]

Greetings - 

 

So that's a really odd size aquarium!  Any reason in particular you want to use this tank vs. another?   The main issue I see is you really won't have much room for coral grow out.  

 

For example if you put an LPS/SPS coral mid way up the tank it could potentially be hitting the front glass of a 10" wide tank, which would effectively shade out the area underneath it.  If you browse through some tank threads you'll see that most stick with shallow and wide/deep style tanks.   This is for a number of reasons but one of the big ones is there's lots of room for coral growth in a deeper (front to back) tank. 

 

If you are set on this tank then I think that light seems powerful enough and has optics so it should reach the bottom of the tank just fine. 

[Dave MN Nano]

Thanks much AJmckay!!!

 

Tank selection here is probably a rookie mistake. I have never had a saltwater tank before and I wanted a smaller tank and I liked the shape of it. I really like the concept of growing coral. and you raise some good points. I plan to only do soft coral in this tank. I think the extra equipment and processes necessary for hard coral would be overkill in this 20g tank. I plan on mostly having Zoanths, leather and mushroom corals.

 

If the coral get too big are they prumable? Or does that kill them???

 

[ajmckay]

1 hour ago, Dave MN Nano said:

Thanks much AJmckay!!!

 

Tank selection here is probably a rookie mistake. I have never had a saltwater tank before and I wanted a smaller tank and I liked the shape of it. I really like the concept of growing coral. and you raise some good points. I plan to only do soft coral in this tank. I think the extra equipment and processes necessary for hard coral would be overkill in this 20g tank. I plan on mostly having Zoanths, leather and mushroom corals.

 

If the coral get too big are they prumable? Or does that kill them???

 

Well welcome to the hobby.  Soft corals are great - they tolerate a wider range of lighting and water chemistries.  If you like the shape of the tank though there's no harm in using it.  I only mentioned because sometimes people use what they have in the attic to start a tank which sometimes results in more cost for other equipment (such as lighting a deep tank).  Tanks are cheap but specialty lights aren't.  This is probably one of the reasons why cube tanks have gained in popularity while long tanks haven't - most people want to use LED than fluorescent for lighting. 

 

The corals you list will be good.  Mushrooms can get a bit large, depending on the variety.  Zoanthids grow quickly but they can be "fragged" or pruned back with ease.  Just be careful to wear eye protection when trimming. Lots of good Youtube videos on fragging corals. 

[mcarroll]

On 1/20/2021 at 4:26 PM, Dave MN Nano said:

I have a 20 gallon very tall tank. 20" wide x 10" deep x 24" tall. Very tall for a rather small footprint. I want to grow corals, at least soft and sps. What light should I use? Thinking about Ocean Revive T247-B. Or is that too strong or too wide???

It is dimmable, so it's exactly as strong as you set it to be.  But check the dimensions....I don't think your tank is big enough to hold it but I could be wrong.  If it fits though, it's nice light.  Just no sunrise/sunset feature....but that's not a big deal.  The OR T247 is my preferred "cheapie" light...at least for tanks that will fit one.

 

I hate to say it, but that 20 gallon is about the perfect tank for a plain old "black box" light like the Mars Aqua.  Similar to the Ocean Revive, but a more compact housing.  Usually that compact housing is a bad thing as it affects the light output, concentrating too much power into the center of the light stream creating a super-intense hot spot.  The Ocean Revive has GREAT spread as a result of its superior layout – no real hot spot, much more even coverage.  But it's also a bigger housing as a result.