cichlidlover

do you need metal halide bulbs for a reef aquarium? I'm thinking about converting my 55 gal into reef within a year. this will be my first experience with corals, so i'm just going to stick with some easy-to-grow ones.

cerianthus

Not necessarily but it could be best option depending on types of corals.
How are your fish, anthias, etc?

sgould

T-5's are frequently a viable alternative for tanks less than 24" deep. Any specific coral varieties in mind yet?

au01st

Overdriven T5s with individual reflectors (4 lamps on an icecap 660 for example) will blow most MH setups out of the water, provide the same or longer lamp life, and give more coral placement options as the light is more uniform throughout the tank. 55s are I think 20" tall (subtract a 1-2" sandbed) and you can support any corals you want.

Just FYI, 55's are hard to aquascape because they lack depth, but if you can aquascape a 55 to look good, you can do anything else.

cichlidlover

fish are good except one anthias died yesterday. i don't think he was getting enough food. I tested the water and it's fine.



I was thinking about getting just some simple coral so basically just easy, cheaper coral

cichlidlover

hmmmmmm... i can't find a t-5 bulb that is small enough. my hood is 2,18-inch bulbs

au01st

You can't put T-5 bulbs in a regular fluorescent fixture, you need a 48" T-5 fixture.

cichlidlover

oh that's to bad

caseyholland

If you want to grow coral you will not be able to use a standard flourescent lights, compact flourescents are the lowest quality that will be consistent. 55s are shallow enough that you dont need mh, in fact shallow tanks tend to get too hot with mh lights
t-5s will grow just about anything you want, t-12 vhos dont do as well with hard corals.
I have struggled with compacts on a 45 g which is shallow too and it wont grow some corals very well, i have had to move alot of them to my bigger tank with mh lights so i can keep them.

cerianthus

Any pics of your tank? I guess 55G is either 18 or 20" tall? It is not shallow tank, IMO..
Problem with 55 G is that tank does not have depth from front to back to aquascape to top with rocks (2/3 of tank height).
You can simply change to Glass canopy or leave it opened (fish can jump though, especially anthias) OR
Changed the light bulb to 50/50 by Coralife.

You can have corals that are not photosynthetic such as carnation, Certain Gorgonian/whip, tubastrea along with certain LPS and softies toward top.

I still would recommend at least 80W of lighting for 55 G even with low light requiring softies and lps.

Why do it unless really prepared? I dont see a point spending money on lighting twice!

cichlidlover

yeah ive already discarded the idea. I am considering a freshwater planted tank though, but the lighting will still be a problem!