Quick lighting Question.

[Toygrr]

I wanted to know, for basic invertibre (anemones polyps ect.) i need about 4 watts per gallon right? or 5.

[skeeter_ca]

There is no such thing as a "Quick Lighting Question".

Color Specktrum?
Depth of tank?
Flouresent?
Compact?
T5?
Halides?
lumes?
Type of species?
Water current?
Type of reflectors?
Height above water?
Temperature control of tank?

I could go on, but please give us some info on what your planning and what you are thinking of setting up and we could give some specific answers.

[mdelcomyn]

No matter what you want, watts per gallon isn't a good rule of thumb. You need to look at PAR ratings, and how efficient the different types of lights are.

[saltysupply]

as far as watts per gallon...go for at least 5, then look at what type of fixture or retrofit system you want.

[Kissfan79]

OK...OK...(not to highjack or anything)...now that my 75 is up and running and I am looking at the lighting system....what exactly is a PAR rating?

Jim

[hemi18]

PAR is Photosynthetic Active Radiation. Basically it is the rating for how well plants grow in any particular light. Maybe you could say that on a scale up to 100 (i think) the higher the PAR rating the closer to natural sunlight the lamp is. i could be wrong but i think that is the gist....

[arts007]

PAR (Photosynthetic Available Radiation, unit µE/m2/s) measures the number of photons reaching a surface, all this in the wavelengths of the visible light (between 400 and 700nm). So its a measurement of the amount of photons failing on a square meter per second. µE = microeinsteins/ m2 = square meter / s = per second..

hemi18 Im thinking what you were talking about as far as the scale up to 100, the higher the rating the closer to sunlight is the CRI index... Color Rendition Index

[Kissfan79]

So...with a PAR rating...is a higher number better then?

Thanks, Jim

[hemi18]

i stand corrected..thanks arts007...this is what i was thinking...at least i knew what PAR stood for.....do i get partial credit?