Lighting For Reef Tank

HI there, I have a 450L Juwel fish tank (not the bow-front one) and I'd like to convert it from Freshwater to a reef tank. I have 4 bulbs in it, currently 54w 1200mm. Will this lighting be good enough for the tank to sustain coral life?
Eventually I'd like anemones for clown fish, some soft coral and some hard coral, will be doing so by getting frags and letting it grow itself, obviously with supplements etc.
Would I need all 4 bulbs turned on & how long do I turn them on for? I have 2 daylight bulbs and 2 marine blue bulbs, all 54w 1200m. Currently I have all 4 bulbs working for 8 hours per day for my freshwater fish. Do I need the blue lights on for 24hrs and the daylights on for X amount or time?
Right now I'm trying to price everything up, I would only be converting it after Xmas at least but I'm trying to do my research so I'm prepared for what I need to do. I live in the UK so watt per gallon is different here as I am not sure whether to use US gallons or UK or something so please help!


Thank you for your time.

 

Bump

 

Anyone?

 

HI Jamie I'm sorry you haven't gotten a response.
Let's see if we can get someone's attention. Mike ryanr Slug LiterallyHydro

(Sorry if I left some members out. I'm not sure who keeps SW)

 

Thank you haha




My tank is 450L, and will be 20 inches tall maximum. I'll post a picture of my measurement but about an inch of that or so will be live sand (tank is currently a Freshwater tank)

 

In my personal opinion it's better to get 3- 4 blue bulbs,and possibly 1 white bulb ( you have to be careful with white ). I know some guy who only uses blue and has great success. If you want hard corals you would have to get many more bulbs ( depending on what kind of coral ). I would have a light on for 8-9 hours.

 

HI Jamie,
That would be fairly low light, but you could sustain many different corals under that lighting (softies, leathers, some LPS, montipora sps), but you would need more T5's (6 or 8 bulb fixture), metal halide with T5 supplement, or LED's ($$$!) if you wanted to try anemones. They have high light requirement, and can be difficult to maintain.

If you go with your T5's, go with a good brand like ATI or Geismann. I have a 65 gallon and I use a 4-bulb fixture with a royal blue LED strip (~450nm) for color-popping accent! The T5's I use are 2 pure actinic and 2 super purple, these give a color to the coral and fish I like in the daylight, and the leds give the nice florescence when the t5's are off. Wavelengths are a personal taste... I attached an old (!) picture pf my tank. Just to let you know, watts/gallon don't really apply to coral, as they all have different requirements. Placement in the tank is key. Also to let you know, anemones move around and can inflict a lot of damage to corals they brush by!

 

I have another lighting unit that I have as a spare, I could have 6 bulbs running in there and make the parts to attach them together as a lid myself. Would 6 be okay for anemones? I wouldn't be getting them until the tank is very established and mature as I know what they can be like.

The bulbs I have are T5, 1200mm, 54W bulbs made by Juwel. I have quite a few bulbs to try out. All the same specs but I have 2 blue, 2 yellow (I think they're called nature colour, I've attached the wave lengths) and about 5 white (a lot of spares from when I bought the tank).




Also, I don't have a sump for my tank.. I have a Fluval FX6 so it has quite a high flow, would this be okay? If I really needed a sump, it would be more cost effective to sell my tank and equipment and buy it all again together off someone on the Internet. However using the equipment I've already got would be the best option... Not sure how I would be able to get a skimmer into my tank though, what would be a good skimmer to use, not in a sump, for a 450L?

 

I have another lighting unit that I have as a spare, I could have 6 bulbs...

That would probably work!

The bulbs I have are T5, 1200mm, 54W bulbs made by Juwel. I have quite a few bulbs to try out. All the same specs but I have 2 blue, 2 yellow (I think they're called nature colour, I've attached the wave lengths) and about 5 white (a lot of spares from when I bought the tank).

The blues are proper for coral, but the yellows are more for planted aquaria. Not sure about the whites.

Ideally, like Lobster Cooker said, use about 8 hours of lighting. Some people use the blues the whole 8 hours, with the 10K or 12K lighting coming on an hour after the blues, and off an hour before the blues go off, to simulate dawn and dusk.

HI Jamie,

I think you have to do some research to decide what you need to do. A sump is nice as you can hide all the equipment there (heater, skimmer, return pump, extra live rock, refugium, and off-cycle lighting (helps stabilize pH). You can use a canister filter, but most reef tanks rely on the sand bed, enough liverock (at least 50 kg!), a sump (about 1/3 or more of tank size!), and skimmer to clean the tank. Large debris is caught in a filter sock that is changed a couple times a week. You would have to maintain the canister very well to not allow the nitrates to build up, but some people do it, it's just not the preferred method!

You can get an 'HOB' or 'Hang-on-back' skimmer. Just get one rated for your 450L, something like this...


Take your time and fully research, it can be quite rewarding!
Cheers,
David

 

I would much prefer to have a sump than use my canister filter, but I don't know where k could fit in a sump into the cupboard for my tank. I'll take a photo of the cupboard later and see what you guys think. Then again, I could make/ buy a new cupboard, I suppose if needs be.

I will be using a lot of live rock and live sand in the tank and won't add any coral or fish until about a week or so after it has cycled. But shall I add the "cleaning squad" before that? I would cycle it by putting a raw shrimp into the tank to decompose as that's what I've been told to do on instructional videos on YouTube whilst I've been looking.

I'm doing a lot of research recently but I won't be getting the tank until well into next year or so, so I have time. I want to get everything right, regardless of cost. It's an expensive hobby, especially for initial costs so I don't mind spending.




I have a 110L tank that I could buy extra glass for and possibly make into a sump with a bit of help from my father (he's a DIY kinda guy).