30 gal. lighting?

[TC3modena]

i have my first saltwater tank setup, its a 30 gallon. i've had it running for about 2 weeks, and i just added some live rock. right now i just have the light that came with the hood, what bulb do you guys reccomend to help some of the corals and what not on the live rock to grow better?

[kakan]

what kind of corals are you planing on keeping.

[TC3modena]

nothing special, whatever grows on the live rock, just wanna keep whatever grows on it alive nd healthy

[Ti]

Figure out what you want to keep first.

[bonsai-boy]

try maybe a daylight tube or acintic

[TC3modena]

just some soft corals, would a 10,000k bulb be good enough?

[tanker]

Originally posted by TC3modena
just some soft corals, would a 10,000k bulb be good enough?

That just the spectrum. Watts is what you need more of. I do not think too many corals will live under NO lights (except sun corals, ect).

[Subrafta]

Do you have the 30 gallon Oceanic "cube" tank? If so I've got the 37g version which is the same as yours but wider. The 30g cube is 20 inches wide, which limits your options a little.

Here is the fixture from Coralife that I had selected before I went with the 37g instead if the Oceanic 30g. It's not expensive (as these things go) and you can get legs and moonlights if you want. It will let you keep just about any soft coral and maybe some LPS corals. Should be fine for your live rock hitchhikers.

http://www.hellolights.com/201xcoaqpcho.html

On the other hand, I've had my tank up for several months with just the 15 watt fixture that came with it. The live rock critters, mushrooms, and xenia are doing fine. I would not recommend this long term, but you have some time to do research before you commit.

I'm upgrading to 250W metal halide so that I can keep SPS and clams, but that's costing a bit more than the $88 Coralife fixture... ;-)

John