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Lighting my tank


kingcroc

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I have a LAC R338 tank with built in hood, i am currently running an 8watt 12" power-glo tube and one standard tube that came with the tank. I would like to keep hard and soft corals in the tank and already have some live rock in there. What could you reccomend as the best lighting to have ? Would two Power-glo tubes be better or 1 power-glo and 1 8watt aqua glo ? The hood has the starter built in so i would prefer to keep it tidy by fitting the T5 12" tubes if possible.

 

Any feedback is most welcome.

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I would definitely get more lighting. Alot more. I would recommend either speicalizes in hard or soft corals not both. For size constarints i recommend soft corals. For soft corals you will need about 4-5 watts per gallon of lighting if not more. I like PC lighting and that is what i use. I have 130 watts of PC on my 20gallon long. If you were to go the hard coral way you will need about a little less light than i have. Maybe around 110 watts. Goodluck.

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Thanks for the info .... looks like i am going to have to hack at my hood !!:-( I wante dto try and get away with keeping it standard and just changing the light tubes ! its very deseptive when you read about it all !! The power-glo tubes state that they give the full spectrum that corals need !!

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If you want to spend the money a metal halide would be almost overkill for a 10 gallon tank. But it is true that most hard corals should be kept under MH. Alot of PC lighting should be enough for the less demanding SPS and LPS. Goodluck.

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I have decided to keep just soft corals and have tried to begin with ....... one hagen power-glo tube and one Arcadia freshwater lamp. Lighting is on for approx 14 hours and so far ....so good ! Although if this doesnt work i will look to change tubes ...to possibly a Aqua-glo and then start hacking at the hood if all else fails ! Its a shame that no one manufactures a Nano reef tank with a hood to suit taking either PC tubes etc etc and a slightly more modular filter to suit !

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  • 1 month later...

I have had the tank running for a few months now and have reasonable results by using two power glo tubes in the standard hood ! However .....bored over the christmmas break i have now bought and fitted two High Power T5 Compact lights made by Interpet each light is 24 Watts which gives me a total of 48 Watts! I am using the Daylight Blues tubes which are 50 % daylight plus white and 50% Blue moon actinic. I have also fitted Jewel Reflectors to the hood and two 12 Volt Fans to assist in cooling the hood ! I also added a second power head for circulation. The tank now looks fantastic. Everything seems to be doing fine ! The whole process of Hacking away at the hood and fitting the new lights took approx 4.5 hours ! Not bad really ! I would definatly reccomend these little tanks.

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