Lighting question

[Satchmo]

Hi all.  I'm not sure what to do here.   I have a 15w NO strip fixture I had planned to suppliment with a 1x36w PC.  I was thinking of using a 10000K bulb in the PC and actinic in the NO strip.  Is this enough light for most "beginner" softies or will I run into a problem?  Is that too low a ratio of actinic to day bulbs?  Alternatively, I could just get a 2x36w PC and leave out the 15w all together.  If I did that, should I use 1 10000K and 1 actinic or 1 10000K and 1 50/50?  Forgive me if I stepped all over the lighting jargon, but this part is all new to me.  Thanks!

[printerdown01]

Personally I believe you should go with the 2x36 one daylight and one actintic. You could also go 2x32 or 2x28... I know how confusing the lighting issue for nanos can be!! LOL have fun!

[pandabehr]

I am using one 36 watt pc 10000k and one 15 watt NO atentic blue bulb.

 

I havent put any corals in the tanks yet but my live rock is kickin'!  The coraline is spreading out of control. I also just started using B-Ionic. That stuff is great!

 

I would love to have 2x 32 watts plus the 15 watt NO. Maybe in the future...

[fish04]

I would go with the 2x36. That's what I have (a 10000K and an actinic). The reason....simple ever6ything will grow that much better. Also, it is a pain to upgrade later. I can guarantee that you'll want better lights in the future if you go with you original plan, then your out the money you spent on that firsts etup plus the new lights. Do it right the first time you'll be happier.

 

......BTW you can keep just about anything under 72W PC on a 10 gal.

[HuBu]

i also have a 2-36W PC (1 daylight & 1 actinic) on my 10gal. so far i have the tank running for almost 3 months and there is already coralline on the base rock that i put into the tank. i wanna upgrade to MH tho. anyone with a 175W MH retrofit or ballast and willing to depart with it for a fair price, email me or PM.

[heero]

You might wanna try here for a 175w 12000k retro fit kit.

It comes out to $108 shipped! That's the cheapest I've seen it. He always has discounts ranging from 25% all the way up to 50% sometimes.

Just thought I'd let ya know.

[Satchmo]

Thanks everyone.  I'm a firm believer in the "get it done right the first time" philosophy, so I'll go for the 2x36w.  Should I then even bother with the 15w NO?  I don't even know if all these lights will even fit over a 10gal! Ahsupply has a 2x36w retrofit kit for $63 w/o bulbs.  Does anyone know of a better bargain out there somewhere?

[jjharrisx4]

So, I'm one of these people who likes to do it right once a lot better than wrong several times.  WHat do ya'll think of 1 175 12K MH and 1 15w actinic over a 15tall tank?

[SLOreefer]

unless you can get them used you wont find a better price. buy your bulbs from hellolights.com so you can get teh true actinic 03. if you can fit it i would add the no with a 50/50. it cant hurt because it is hard to overlite tanks of this size.(unless you use like a 400w mh)

[Satchmo]

Cool.  I planned on getting the bulbs elsewhere as ahsupply only has 36w in 5300K and 6400K, which seemed surprising because most reefkeepers I've spoken with seem to prefer the 10000K.  Thanks for the input.

[Satchmo]

Quote: from HuBu on 10:57 pm on May 21, 2002[br]so far i have the tank running for almost 3 months and there is already coralline on the base rock that i put into the tank.

 

HuBu, what was the ratio of base rock to live rock when you started this tank?  Also how did you seed the "dead" rock, meaning baserock on bottom, live on top... or did you scatter the live rock throughout the reef?  Just curious.

 

(Edited by Satchmo at 3:32 pm on May 22, 2002)