Need help on lighting, ready to get into corals

[202ReefKeeper]

I currently have a fowlr tank which has been setup for 6months an counting. Since day 1 I have been dosing with EVS 2part buffer alk & cal just cause I had planned on getting corals and wanted to get the levels in order beforehand but also wanted to get into the habit of the maintenance for corals. Any suggestions on lights? I already have a coralife lighting that holds 4 compact bulbs, 2 50/50 and 2 actinics 21" long and all of them 65w. Is this enough to sustain coral, if so which ones? I also have two t8 HO single strips used for black lights (not on tank) but thought I could buy 10k bulbs for if needed. Or are there any suggestions on just getting something else such as LEDs? This lighting is very confusing to me, seriously any help would be much appreciated

.....Thanks in advance folks

[Ron Reefman]

Your 4 bulb t5 is a good start. How big and how deep is your tank? And what kind of corals are you looking to get, i.e. zoas, softies, lps, sps?

You can keep healthy coral and even grow coral with most any kind of light fixture if it has enough output and the right spectrum. But it's not an all or nothing game. Lots of people use enough t5 fluorescent light to grow sps corals. MH are an tried and proven light. And leds are just fine and getting down right inexpensive if you don't feel the need to buy big dollar brand names. As for spectrum, corals will survive in mostly white light, but it's easy to do better. Do you understand the kind of spectrum your corals will want and why?

You understand the dosing and you've been doing it to a FOWLR tank and the lighting confuses you? Really? That's funny. It took me 2 years to come to grips with the chemistry going on in my tank. Lighting was just buy a good unit and you are on your way.

I started with t5 and then when to MH because almsot everybody said I had to for sos corals. That's not really true, BTW. And then I switched to leds for a host of reasons and now I'd never go back. I love the ability to adjust the power and color of my light. I really appreciate the cool running temp and the lower operating costs. I have 4 tanks and went from all MH to all led... it saves me over $700/yr in electricity (fixtures use less and due to much less heat, my chiller runs WAY less and my house A/C runs less in the summer) and in new bulbs.

[C.Eymann]

Originally Posted by 202ReefKeeper

I currently have a fowlr tank which has been setup for 6months an counting. Since day 1 I have been dosing with EVS 2part buffer alk & cal just cause I had planned on getting corals and wanted to get the levels in order beforehand but also wanted to get into the habit of the maintenance for corals. Any suggestions on lights? I already have a coralife lighting that holds 4 compact bulbs, 2 50/50 and 2 actinics 21" long and all of them 65w. Is this enough to sustain coral, if so which ones? I also have two t8 HO single strips used for black lights (not on tank) but thought I could buy 10k bulbs for if needed. Or are there any suggestions on just getting something else such as LEDs? This lighting is very confusing to me, seriously any help would be much appreciated

.....Thanks in advance folks

How big is the aquarium? What do you want to keep?

Personally I would ditch your compact fluorescents, bulbs are expensive and they really are not typically used much other than refugium lights these days.

If getting a new fixture like t5s, leds or halides is out of the question. You will be a little bit limited on corals depending on how large the aquarium is.

Main reason to upgrade would be inefficientcy and high bulb cost-- just my two pennies

[202ReefKeeper]

Thanks for the advice and info Ron & C Eymann... I wanna start small an inexpensive such as zoas & sps. I've been looking at the leds and so far the 300w full spectrum has been the buzz. Sorry about the stats, I thought my tank info was listed. It's a 75g (48x18x18) about 90lbs of live rock very shallow sand bed, just enough for the snails & hermits to play in. I'd liked to use what I have just to start but as Eymann mentioned the cost of the bulbs for this thin are a complete rip off almost $30+bucks X 4. And the intensity doesn't last long the more use. LEDs is more than likely the way I'll go, just not right now. The cost for LEDs isn't the problem but I would rather use up what I have versus pass it off to someone else or try selling it. It will be kept as a backup I guess when I do switch over. What might be a few suggestions on picking corals for now?

[Ron Reefman]

Having back ups is always a good idea. I have a couple back up led fixtures (since I have 4 tanks and 2 refugiums running). I also keep a spare DC12000 pump and a couple spare wave maker power heads, ect. I think a spare skimmer is about the only thing I don't keep, and it's really not a do or die piece of hardware.

Are you talking about the Marsaqua 300 fixture? It's not a bad fixture from what little I know about them. I'm not a big fan of the blue led selection they use and they use too many warm white and red leds for my taste. They really under drive them at 1.88 watts (they call it a 300 watt system, but they only drive 100 leds at 188 watts). Other 100 led fixtures drive at 240 watts which is 2.4 watts per led. But the others that I know of are all made with built-in controllers and they cost a lot more that the $150-$170 I've seen for the Marsaqua.

Any zoas and most soft corals are pretty hearty. Just pick inexpensive ones for the first couple and make sure they do OK before you start spending money on the higher price stuff.

[KMS.Kyle]

I absolutely love my Kessils (I have the Kessil 360N for my deep tank).

The shimmer effect is always a beautiful addition and the color REALLY pops at night.

I've seen such a vast improvement in my tank since adding them.

Note: I'm pretty new here so that's just my 2 cents I did a ton of research on them before hand and so far, they've done everything and more than I wanted.