Forty Fathoms

[Guywithhat]

Iam currently setting up a 20 gallon tank with a 10 gallon sump, and I was wondering what you good folks would suggest for lighting... Right at the moment I have a odyssea 24" 65w 50/50 with a moon light attached to the front. I plan on haveing a few corals.. mushrooms polyps... or anything easy to keep... I don't want to devote a ton of time into this tank...fish will eventually be a pair of clown fish and maybe 1 or 2 other small fish.. a yellow goby or something small and reef safe... but not a firefish..

I have been looking into clamp on HQI setups, or a fixture with an hqi w/ moonlights and PC lighting... ranging from 75-175 watts.. but my main question is... how much is too much and how much is not enough.. and how much is just right...lol..I noticed that jim has T5's also.. I never thought about them... also I want something that won't produce alot of heat.

some history... I had this 20 gallon tank running a few years ago with a hang on fuge/skimmer setup until it broke and pumped most of the tank onto my floor ... then it had a regular dual filter from walmart for awhile... with a 130watt PC setup with moon lights.. it ran for alittle over a year.. i've had some damsals, a pair of clown fish that had eggs.. then had eggs for breakfast.. a yellow goby.. a firefish.. that jumped out twice.. the first time i was there and saved him.. the second....RIP firefish... then it got some asipila(sp) and some bad green algea and i got sick of cleaning it and had alot on the go.. so i traded it to my buddy adam... then he got a bigger tank and more tanks.. then jeff got a huge set of tanks... i think there on this forum somewheres... then i got my tank back and jeff helped me drill it... it now has a cut up walmart filter siliconed to the back wall to screen the drain hole... which drains into a 10 gallon in the stand with a compact flouresent bulb over it.. bubble trap and a rio 2100 that pumps threw a splitter and valve setup to control flow to the main tank... then goes into a flow diverter(sqwd?) and back into the tank...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wi6tnR1Cmk
older video... I cut the 2"abs down pipe off and replaced it with a flexi line... much less noise now...

edit:
found an old picture of my former tank...


was just thinking that a homemade hood/canopy for it would work well... muffle some noise from the drain pipe, reduce evaporation a bit.. and keep out cat and dog hair...

[Nebthet]

Lighting is going to depend greatly on the type of coral that you want to keep. Low light corals will do fine with the power compancts, you can get away with mushrooms and zoas in them, my hammer when I had one did fine with the power compact, just remember to replace the bulbs every 6 months.

If it is the Odyssea 130watt PC you have you can get 12 replacement bulbs plus shipping up here for about $80 - $90 and they should do you a couple of years.

For best lighting over all, that would allow you to pretty much keep anything you want, I would suggest to go with a 24" 4-bulb T5.
They produce less heat than a metal halide and with the bulbs you can produce some nice color combinations that suit you and your corals needs.

[Guywithhat]

i have the 65watt odyssea... just one bulb in it... had the double years ago... whats the next size down from a 24 t5.. my tank is 24 wide... if i did a diy canopy that might work... and if they produce less heat.. that would be nice for the summer months... think the mushrooms and zoas would be alright in the 65w light tho? thanks...

[Nebthet]

65w of PC light is not a lot. That is usually why they are used for freshwater tanks with no plants in it. It just lights the tank so you can see the fish, but provide no healthy benefit to any living plants.

That is why you don't normally see a single bulb light on a tank unless you are setting up a FOWLR (fish only with live rock).

If you can get your hands on a dual bulb then I would suggest to do that. The corals will be happy.

I have a 25g in the kitchen right now, with zoas and mushrooms and they are just happy.. and that is with a 130w pc odyssea light.

Also the heat coming from the T5 lights are comparible to the heat coming off the Compact Flourescents. It's almost the same.

[jimskoi]

If your interested.I have a dual w/bulbs 24" T5 set up(new)-$165
_________________
"Its all fun and games until the glass breaks"

[kenny]

I did fine with pc for brains, candycanes, shrooms and other softies. I run T-5s now and have everything from acro's and monti's to starpolyps.

If you want to do clams or exotic zoa's you would need to consider the MH, but pc and t5 are good for everything else in my experience.