Please help.. Lighting for a 30 gallon L

[Auricom]

I'm trying to decide on lights for my 30 gallon tank. 36x12x16. I am looking toward Metal halides so that I can use them when I upgrade to a 110 + gallon in a year or two. I will have corals, a few fish, an anemone, and maybe a maxima clam in my current setup.

I've been told to look at the coralife aqualight pro(36" comes with 1 150w hqi, 2 actinic pcs and 2 moonlights).

Or build my own with 2x175 MH 10K and actinic fluorescents or 20k xm or 2x110w VHO super actinics with 10k mh.

I am completely new to all this, so it's hard for me to interpret. I've researched until my head is pounding.

Can someone help me with all this? What has worked for you, what hasn't worked. Pictures would be great if you have any.

Thanks so much!
Auricom

[Dubbin1]

Go with the MH setup just to save you money down the road when you wish you would have done it.

[Auricom]

Ok, so which one.. and will I need supplements? Will supplements need their own seperate ballasts?

Sorry, I reallly am new to all this. :confused:

[paine43]

i was looking into getting a new lighting system as well, with having a 12 wide tank it's going to be hard to fit vho's in with the MH retros. Most mh reflexors are 10 to 12 long. If you were to buy one reflexor it may work but you will need to use t5's as they are smaller then vho's. it all depends on how much money you want to spend.

[Auricom]

So since I can probably only fit the MH retrokit, I should probably go with 1 or 2 175w 20k xm?

[catdoc]

I have a single 250W MH 14K pendant over my 30L (36"). I really like how it looks but the ends of the tank are a bit dim. That's ok with me b/c I can keep my lower light corals there. If you were going to go all sps, you'll probably want two mh bulbs instead of one. I don't need actinic supplementation with the 14K bulb, it looks like good color to me without it.

[samsfishnchips]

yeah, I had a 30G long, with only one mh and the spread was good,

so,

A) one 175-250w 10k, with actinics
B) one 175-250w 14k

these will give you good color,

right now on my 55g, I have two 250w 10k xm, and two 96w atinics and it looks sweat, try the 20k but kinda of dim and too blue

but the best thing is to look at the light, some people like yellow, white-blues, blue, it is also a matter of preference,

but in general, regarding only to lights, the lower the k, the much better growth you should see, 6.5K>10k>14k>20K...

again lighting is a very confusing descison to make, good luck,

sam

[Auricom]

Thanks so much for all the information. It takes a while to sink in sometimes, but now I think I finally understand lighting decently well.

After all my research and basically making a shopping list for our 30 gal tank. My hubby gets home and decides it's too expensive. We should save our money and get a 175g and use the 30 for a sump!! :eek2: So, I'm glad I picked up all the knowledge on lights and I'll have to reapply it to the monster tank. We have a lot of research to do and some saving to do.

I've always read that it's best for a beginner to get the largest tank they can afford. Well, is there a limit to that statement? I know that we invest all that money we will do our homework and get educated and ready for it, but is there a chance of failure? Is it possible that despite our best efforts we could just not be sucessful with a reef tank? I feel like we will be able to do it because of the dedication we'll have to researching and making sure we do everything right, but we've never had a reef or a SW tank before.

Thoughts?

[paine43]

well there alway room mistakes, but if you can afford a bigger tank they do it! because your always going to want it later down the road. looking into a local reef club that way you can have someone close to you to help you out and to get support from. also its fun to see other tanks

[samsfishnchips]

yeah,

bigger is most of the time better, it should blow that you get a 175w setup for the 30g and them move on to a bigger tank and the 175w would not be enough and the difference between the 175w and 250w is a few bucks :D

man when I started, my first tank was 10g and since them I have been upgrading, 10g -30g -55g, and at first the tank looks big, but after a while it looks smaller and smaller lol, can't wait to get a house to put a nice 220g up:D

and yes there is such thing as too big, if you have a big tank full of corals, specially hard corals, will you be able to keep up with calcium/alkalinity? if not you will need a calcium reactor $300 and up, bigger skimmer, more lights, more electricity, more pumps, will the floor support the tank?, and the list goes on...

man this hobby is a bit expensive but loving it :D