Do I need more light?

[janasleah]

I have an Eclipse Hex 5. HogWinslow made me a custom hood w/two 13w PC fixtures; I actually haven't received the lamps yet (hopefully today), but I'm already wondering if that's enough light X) . Probably about 4 gallons of water, depth is max 12" from top of sand bed to lamps. I mostly want to keep zoos, shrooms and rics, but I got a freebie pipe organ polyp and a hitchhiker hard coral (maybe a porite?). At the moment there's only a 10w 50/50 and a 7200k Azoo clamp-on lamp; I have the hard guys at the top of the LR. Do I need another lamp? I also ordered two 6" cold cathode ray tubes for moonlight; any idea on whether that's too much?

 

Thanks!

[MattGecko]

Two 13w should be ok for what you want to keep in there or if you have the room cram a third one in.

 

The Cold cathode will need to be wired to an adjustable power supply so it can be dimmed for your viewing pleasure.

[janasleah]

Thanks for replying, Matt! I had almost given up!: So the ccrt's will be too bright? The power inverter I ordered can handle one or two lamps, so I can go either way; but I don't have a dimmer attached to it or anything.

[MattGecko]

Yes the CCRT will need to be adjusted down to about 3v. Running it at 12v is almost like an actinic PC. I'll send you a PM.