Sabi

You mean better lighting?
I was going to go with 2 x 39watt bulbs, 1 white 1 blue, to start with.

Gozer_1

2 X 39W will give you 3 Watts per gallon. I'd recommend 4 or 5 for the large majority of Polyps, Mushrooms, Softies and a good lot of LPS corals. It's the SPS corals that really need serious lighting. With my current setup I have around 3 WPG and really want to upgrade. It's just not quite enough.

Sabi

So long as some corals will be able to grow in that light i'd be happy for now. Later however i will either get more higher wattage t5's or different lights. (And i thought t5's were quite good for most of the corals!) Thanks for your help Gozer & Rbacchiega.

GreenMan13

T5 are good for most coral given enough wattage of T5s. Starting off with 2x39 watt tubes and planning to go up in wattage later is a fine idea, just make sure that the ballast and fixture can handle higher wattage bulbs.

Rbacchiega

I currently run 96 watts over a 10 gallon tank and all my corals are doing quite well. I would look at saving up and going with a powercompact unit of somesort...corallife is great.

Gozer_1

LOL I have Power Compacts and have been considering T5s. Go figure right. T5s have a little better output than Power Compacts. You can grow anything up to the more light needy stuff quite well with T5s. The trick is having the right number of bulbs. Like Greenman said, as long as you plan to upgrade as your light requirements go up, you'll be fine. 3 Ws is AOK for getting a tank started. The primary reason I recommend getting the light you want later, now, is for long term savings. It may cost you more in the long run to settle now and upgrade later. Just something to think about. It's my basic theory on everything I put in or on my reef. One note you might like. Fox Coral would do magnificent at 3 Ws. Low flow/Low light LPS coral. I posted a pic or two of mine in my 75 thread. They are beautiful. Prettiest coral I have anyway. lol.

Rbacchiega

....which is why I now have one in my 90 gallon :P

Sabi

Which? The corals or the T5's? lol.

Gozer, yip i get what you saying about buying it now. And you are right, better get all you want one time! What holds me back is i'm not sure i am going to get the more light demanding corals in the future. They require a lot of attention (i think) and i'm not sure i can do that.
What i'm supposed to be getting now is the 2 x bulbs and a ballast that will power both. What i thought i'd do if i wanted more/better lighting was get a higher wattage of bulbs with another ballast and add that to the current ones. Another thing to consider is that 39wat bulbs are just under 90cm in length and my tank is 90cm. Higher wattage ones are longer i think?
Another question relating to this lighting, will i be able to keep any clams?

Well whats better t5 or power compacts? My lfs goes with Power Compacts too.

And to update on my tank so far.... All finalized except the stand, skimmer and lighting.
Thanks guys, for all the info!

Gozer_1

Well, the light you'll have will give you plenty of options. There are several corals that will do just fine. Mushrooms (I think all of them), Some Zoos and few LPS corals like Bubble Coral and the Fox I mentioned. Sadly, clams require VERY high lighting. At least the pretty ones do If you knew for sure that you planned for higher light stuff later then I'd say go big now, but if you are unsure then just run with what you're getting now. I'm experimenting with high output LEDs. I have the need to upgrade dilemma, so I'm going to ad a few Current USA Power LED units. I have one now but it isn't near enough. Very interesting. Won't really know what I think until I have a couple more modules so they go across the whole tank. As for the T5\PC question, it's my understanding that T5s put out higher quality light. More intense. Power compacts have the advantage of fitting higher wattage bulbs in a smaller place. So T5s require more bulbs but they put off more usable light for the same wattage. Like I said, I'm considering switching out my PCs for T5s. In a lower light situation the quality of the light at this level is going to make a minimal difference. If PC is cheaper then I'd go PC or vice versa. Maybe when you decide to upgrade because you, "just gotta have that coral even though it needs more light". lol It'll happen, just you wait. There are some amazing higher light corals. It's so tempting.

Sabi

LOL, thats what i'm afraid off!

Sabi

Hi again!

ok, I have my system setup for about 2 months now and i still have readings of ammonia nitrite and nitrate. Is something wrong?
The tanks has a filter, skimmer, heater, bio balls, power heads and 9.5 kg live rock in about 50gal water. .. ..