Sooo, what sort of lighting is recomended for a small 30-35gallon reef tank.

Im looking at zoo's, shrooms, brains, clams, and maybe leathers and softies.

Can you give me a clue as to what i should be roughly looking into for lighting.
I was thinking around 3wpg for these corals minimum, sound right?

From what i have read and been told, that sounds about right to me. I have just set up a nano reef with 3Wpg. with a that size tank you can probably place corals requiring more light nearer the light source and at different depths depending on light needs. would love to see pics of your tank when its up and running. mine gets fish on wed night so will post some pics soon.

You could probally do with Power Compacts are Very High Outputs VHO. But for the clam I would definitly reccomend a 2 175 watt 10000K metal Halide. With Two 65 watt power compact atinic 03.

What kinda clam are we talking about? What are the measurements of the said tank. These are both two critical factors that have to be known before a solid recommendation can be made....

If you can provide that I will respond back with much greater detail when I get a chance (Im at work now)....

Well I think he said a 30 gallon tank typical demisions on a 30 gallon is 36 by 12 by 16. But which I'm probaly assuming this but you do want to keep one of the High light requirment clams like the Tridnca and all those geourgoes clams. I'm still trying to find one that I like at my LFS. Look at one of these for you lighting. But if you could verify what type of clam and the tank demisions we could come to a better conclusion.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod...Y&N=2004+113352

Since there are a number of softies involved...Im going to go out on a limb and say you might want to think a bit more conservative on lighting and stick to Maximas high in the rock work and pass on the Croceas and most SPS corals. The softies will do great under PC or VHO as will Maximas high in the rocks, you just wont really get the eye poping colors from the clam though and it might dull up a little on you. Plus clams are best viewed from above and with it placed high in the rocks veiwing will be less than outstanding. For Maximas and Croceas halides are most seriously recommended...

The Shrooms, Brain, Zoos and Maximas and Corceas I would suggest 1 x 150 watt or 175 watt halide 10-15K and a couple of VHO or 96 watt PCs. I realize that 1 halide should be used per every 24 x 24 inches of tank foot print but trust me you can get by with one halide in a tank 36 inches or less with adequate results. I have done it on a 135 with 2 400 watt halides and with 1 x 250 watt halide on a 65 and most would have sworn I was using 3 and 2 fixtures respectively.

Its hard to say specifically what will be enough or not enough cuase somewhere there is always going to be someone who has defied the odds. Lighting is not everything but it is a crtiical point, one that should be thoroughly pondered long and hard. Remeber too there is a difference between surviving and thriving...

I agree with ritz niether of us can give you a uniform decision on lighting I just thhink that it is something that you are going to have to think about and do what is best for YOUR tank.

WOW! Thanks for your greta replys. I realise thta it was kinda of stupid question cause i havnt got the tank yet, but was just after a rough guide as to what i would need to get before i went out and brought a tank that was inadiquate (spp?)

Im gonna re phrase my question a bit.

When i go looking for a tank, what should i look for hood wise. I mean, 1x MH, and 2x PCs are gonna take up some room no? And i really dont know what i need to look for space wise. I deffinately want a clsed system so the MH might have to go.

I have exams next week for uni. 4. :barf1: . So when they are over im seriously going to go tank shopping as i have money! yay. And when i am seriously considering a tank, ill get its proper dimensions.

Im getting a little confused....you keep refering (sp?) to " a closed system". What exactly are you meaning by that?

Yeah, my apologese, im not too good lingo wise at the mo.

Like i want a hood, not an open system where there is no cover and the light hangs from the roof. I would prefer it with lid. :) Make sense?

Are you going to make your own hood. You would definity want to put CPU fans on either side of it to keep it cool. You could also look at getting a german double socket bulb they are a little bit smaller. You could get the retrofit kit and get the retrofit kit for the power compacts.

Okay I see now...I thought you were talking about a closed loop water circulation system in addition to the lighting issue. This makes perfect sense now.

As saltfreak mentioned proper ventilation will be of the up most importance to avoid over heating issues. I like the fans I got from Hello Lights, those things can move some serious air for thier size and were reasonably priced too! Another concept that I have discovered is an open top canopy where there is expanded metal cloth across the top of the canopy and this allows for excellent natrual ventilation and heat dissipation. It doesnt look ghetto on a decent size tank stand height, there is suprisingly little light spilling through the top on this sort of arrangement, and it really works! Best part is I dont have to run an intake and exhaust fan to keep temps down, hence very quiet operation with 2 less plug ins required. Of course they dont sell canopys like this so its a DIY project. For this type of project I would prefer standard SE bulb fixtures as opposed to the DE bulb fixtures. Do know that should you use DE fixtures you will need a piece of glass for each one to shield the tanks critters against UV radiation. This are also a bit more expensive to purchase and maintain bulbs as compared to the SE fixtures.

Given your expectations, you can go 1 x 175 watt 15K SE Halide and 2 x PC or VHO in 50/50 or actinic depending on how much blue you wanted in the tank. Another option is the same arrangement with a 10K SE Halide and 2 x Actinic PC or VHO. I would very much prefer the VHO's in this case as the color rendition in the 420 NM range is superior in my opinion compared to PC's. This would allow you to have you more light demanding corals in the middle 24 inches and a softie or two out to each side without frying them with the bright lights. On a 36 x 12 16 inch tank this might be your best "no comprimise" option. Any other arrangement and you will have to make sacrifices in all probabilty, ie...lose the softies or lose the clam. In a tank this size I really think that 2 halides would be a bit much.

Thats very interesting about the metal cloth thingy have no idea what that looks like or what it is. Yah your probaly right two halides would be over kill guess I get too exited with lighting :gay:. The only thing Is i'm really havn't mess with VHO but Its going to take you about 200 dollars just to do the VHO not to mention the halides but like rit said if there better than PCs than by all means go for it. I'm just curious though arn't the PCs and VHO atinics realtively the same thing just different shapes and configuration. Well anyway good luck on the tank setup.

Thanks guys, that was a real help to me. Im already been reading up about them and getting to know whta each one does and what they are good for etc.

So have you any recopmended online stores? Where i live i cant see too many stores holding MH's or PC units. nly one i know of and the prices made me laugh.
So any u would recomend so i can have a sqize at?

www.hellolights.com is always first on my list for any buisness I have to do dealing with lighting equipment! The run some pretty serious deals too from time to time as well. For example...I recently bought them out of 2 x 110 VHO light fixtures they had on sale for 59.00 that had a electronic ballast, completely assembles with German End Caps, youd be hard pressed to beat that! This will run a pair of 75 watt, 95 watt or 110 watt VHO's.

Lighting is really a subjective thing. I personally prefer VHO's. Looking at light spectrum only, the VHO actinic definitely has a bit of an edge on PC actinics. So I am a bit biased for the VHO's. I really like the rendition of the light that they provide and appears to have a bit more PAR. Thats not to say I havent kept corals sucessfully under both types, as many others have. I do think I have had a bit better results from the VHO's though. A good site to check out regarding VHO is Ice Caps website.

PC's do only require the bulbs to be changed about once a year but cost about 2 times as much as a VHO tube that last only 6-8 months max depending on the ballast. So bulb wise there really is no savings. It pretty much comes down to what you like the most and what pleases your eyes more. PC bulbs do come in more color Temps than VHO so that too is somewhat of an advantage especially in the refugium or FW tank.

I would strongly suggest that you look at a number of tanks with the types of lighting you think you might want and then compare notes and decide which one you think will do the job best and give you the closest thing to the look you want. Seeing is believing!

Ice Cap and URJ are pretty good companys. I would prefer the Ice Cap ballast even though they are 200 dollars but still a good company on lighting.

Oh just brilliant, Hellolights says it will not ship overseas. Looks like i might have a little bit of trouble, ill keep searching though, and i may be able to pic up a deal with an lfs if i buy a package deal.

Thanks for the links though guys!

Yeah I forgot about that...I have a friend hook me up thats over in the US. Shipping cost a bit but its still cheaper than Japan. Thats the beauty of networking! If JSDF has a Squadron at NAS Whidbey Island on training with USN then its even better cuase I can usually have them fly it back for free to Japan and theres no customs to deal with either. I dont know how it would compare where your at.....

Champion Light is another good place but the shipping might be an issue too like Hello Lights.

In the end it might be cost effective to order them where your at instead of on-line.