Is this light adequate?

That's 4x96=384/125gallons=3.07 watts per gallon. That's
only enough light to grow low light stuff. It would be
better to get around 6 or over in watts per gallon so that
you can grow anything.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



George Patterson wrote on 12/21/2006 5:26 PM:
I'm considering buying the Coralife HO fluorescent fixture for my tank.
The tank is a 125 gallon and is 23" deep. Here's a link to the fixture.

http://www.thatpetplace.com/Products.../Itemdy00.aspx


It comes with two 96 watt 10,000K and two 96 watt actinic bulbs. Each is
a double tube bulb. There's also a bulb on the market that is half
actinic and half 10,000K. Replacing the actinics would give me 3/4 of
the output in the 10,000K range and only 1/4 actinic. Would that be a
good idea?

The tank is currently FOWLR, but I intend to eventually add some soft
corals.

George Patterson
Forgive your enemies. But always remember who they are.

Wayne Sallee wrote:
That's 4x96=384/125gallons=3.07 watts per gallon. That's only enough
light to grow low light stuff. It would be better to get around 6 or
over in watts per gallon so that you can grow anything.

I never understood the logic behind the straight "watts per gallon" rule
of thumb. It's good for general ballpark, but not much else.

Consider that 1watt of PC lighting has more lumens than 1 watt of
standard flourescent. 1 watt of metal halide light has more lumens than
1 watt of PC lighting.

And of course the lumens per watt vary greatly by bulb model and
manufacturer as well.

Watts by themselves don't give you the full story of how much light will
be produced.

It's true that it's not perfect, but it's the best rule of
thumb around. Naturally you need to use quality lighting,
and yes MH light rules :-)

Lumens, however is a measurement of light intensity to the
human eye. Because we see yellow the best, high pressure
sodium lights have a very high lumens per watt, but are
not what you want over your reef tank.

So the best thing is to get good quality lighting that you
can trust, and get your watts per gallon up to where they
should be.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



Add Homonym wrote on 12/22/2006 10:17 AM:
Wayne Sallee wrote:
That's 4x96=384/125gallons=3.07 watts per gallon. That's only enough
light to grow low light stuff. It would be better to get around 6 or
over in watts per gallon so that you can grow anything.

I never understood the logic behind the straight "watts per gallon" rule
of thumb. It's good for general ballpark, but not much else.

Consider that 1watt of PC lighting has more lumens than 1 watt of
standard flourescent. 1 watt of metal halide light has more lumens than
1 watt of PC lighting.

And of course the lumens per watt vary greatly by bulb model and
manufacturer as well.

Watts by themselves don't give you the full story of how much light will
be produced.

Wayne Sallee wrote:

It would be better to get around 6 or
over in watts per gallon so that you can grow anything.

In that case, I'll have to put it off for the foreseeable future. That sort of
lighting puts me into the $900 plus range.

George Patterson
Forgive your enemies. But always remember who they are.

George Patterson wrote:
Wayne Sallee wrote:

It would be better to get around 6 or over in watts per gallon so that
you can grow anything.

In that case, I'll have to put it off for the foreseeable future. That
sort of lighting puts me into the $900 plus range.

Check ebay. Seems like some interesting pricing, but these are mostly
150 watt MH.

KurtG wrote:

Check ebay. Seems like some interesting pricing, but these are mostly
150 watt MH.

I'll do that. I spent the morning going over what's available, and I'm leaning
towards the Outer Orbit model 1044 or 1074. Coralife also has an 834 watt system
for $899.99 mail order, but I didn't note down the model number.

George Patterson
Forgive your enemies. But always remember who they are.