55 gallons how many watts of light are require for corals and fish to be healthy ??
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Newjack
Member
Re: 55 gallons how many watts of light are require for corals and fish to be healthy
im not positive but I always understood its at least 2 watts per gallon. That also depends on depth. If your tank is deeper then you'll need more than 2watt/gal. 216 watts is plenty. Im not sure but it may be too much and could cause bleaching. I would wait for a second opinion first.
im not positive but I always understood its at least 2 watts per gallon. That also depends on depth. If your tank is deeper then you'll need more than 2watt/gal. 216 watts is plenty. Im not sure but it may be too much and could cause bleaching. I would wait for a second opinion first.
CodyWarner92
Member
Re: 55 gallons how many watts of light are require for corals and fish to be healthy
I have a 60g tank with t5ho on my tank. I just had to get rid of my 4x39w coralife fixture because it really wasnt enough light for everybody. I had to change to a 6x39w fixture. I noticed within a day or two the difference. I absolutely love this thing haha.. My tank is 36" wide and about 18" deep
I have a 60g tank with t5ho on my tank. I just had to get rid of my 4x39w coralife fixture because it really wasnt enough light for everybody. I had to change to a 6x39w fixture. I noticed within a day or two the difference. I absolutely love this thing haha.. My tank is 36" wide and about 18" deep
Re: 55 gallons how many watts of light are require for corals and fish to be healthy
There is no hard fast rule, since different corals have different light requirements. So the question then becomes, what corals do you want to keep?
What you have, which sounds like a 4 bulb T5 fixture should work just fine for most corals. If your keeping SPS corals, then you may need to put some types near the surface.
Lastly, ignore all watts per gallon rules, since this all depends upon the type of light in use, and the kind of bulbs or LEDs being used.
There is no hard fast rule, since different corals have different light requirements. So the question then becomes, what corals do you want to keep?
What you have, which sounds like a 4 bulb T5 fixture should work just fine for most corals. If your keeping SPS corals, then you may need to put some types near the surface.
Lastly, ignore all watts per gallon rules, since this all depends upon the type of light in use, and the kind of bulbs or LEDs being used.
Re: 55 gallons how many watts of light are require for corals and fish to be healthy
****Below is Allen's canned speech concerning WPG rule****
With all due respect we need to be very careful when using Watts per Gallon as a rule of thumb. I'd rather not see it used at all but that's just me . .
"Watts Per Gallon" .....that was ok back when we had a very limited amount of resources and dealing with only 1 or 2 types of lighting. When you start factoring in T5's, MH, PC, and LED all into the same equation you're trying to make Apple Sauce with oranges and lemons. 1W of LED light is not equivalent to 1W of PC light and the comparison inaccuracies keep going.
Take a 10g tank for instance. If you put a 130W PC fixture (dual 65w bulbs) over it you can grow a lot of things but you are still dealing with very inefficient results. The only thing you know for sure is you're CONSUMING 130W of energy per hour. A lot of that light is wasted and never reaching the coral in the tank.
Take the same 10g tank and put a 70w MH over it. You're using almost 1/2 the energy yet producing enough of the RIGHT intensity of light to grow anything ... in fact you will have to be careful to not OVER light the tank with that light.
Take the same 10g tank and light it with 39W of High Efficiency LED and you've again got to be careful because you're over-lighting the tank while consuming a lot less energy.
The reason I use a 10g tank is to keep the math simple (my mind is full of useless info so the simpler I keep things the better) and because I have done this exact scenario on my 10g Frag tank.
I tell people like this... if you're flying an airplane at night and about to land on a remote runway... would you rather have 10,000 birthday candles lighting the runway or a few really bright runway markers? I can tell you first hand you can not use the Watts per Gallon rule when trying to light a reef tank with current technology.
I hope that helps some and please don't anyone take offense to my comments. It's not a direct slam on anyone just a slight modification of methods used to come up with a solution.
****Below is Allen's canned speech concerning WPG rule****
With all due respect we need to be very careful when using Watts per Gallon as a rule of thumb. I'd rather not see it used at all but that's just me . .
"Watts Per Gallon" .....that was ok back when we had a very limited amount of resources and dealing with only 1 or 2 types of lighting. When you start factoring in T5's, MH, PC, and LED all into the same equation you're trying to make Apple Sauce with oranges and lemons. 1W of LED light is not equivalent to 1W of PC light and the comparison inaccuracies keep going.
Take a 10g tank for instance. If you put a 130W PC fixture (dual 65w bulbs) over it you can grow a lot of things but you are still dealing with very inefficient results. The only thing you know for sure is you're CONSUMING 130W of energy per hour. A lot of that light is wasted and never reaching the coral in the tank.
Take the same 10g tank and put a 70w MH over it. You're using almost 1/2 the energy yet producing enough of the RIGHT intensity of light to grow anything ... in fact you will have to be careful to not OVER light the tank with that light.
Take the same 10g tank and light it with 39W of High Efficiency LED and you've again got to be careful because you're over-lighting the tank while consuming a lot less energy.
- 10g w/130w PC = 13WPG - still not sufficient light for some higher end SPS and a Seabae Anemone
- 10g w/70w MH = 7WPG - Sufficient to grow anything you want to put in the tank and overkill for a lot of lower light coral... plus you'll need to address heating the water from the MH
- 10g w/39w LED = 3.9WPG Could potentially be overkill depending on the coral and just which LED are used.
The reason I use a 10g tank is to keep the math simple (my mind is full of useless info so the simpler I keep things the better) and because I have done this exact scenario on my 10g Frag tank.
I tell people like this... if you're flying an airplane at night and about to land on a remote runway... would you rather have 10,000 birthday candles lighting the runway or a few really bright runway markers? I can tell you first hand you can not use the Watts per Gallon rule when trying to light a reef tank with current technology.
I hope that helps some and please don't anyone take offense to my comments. It's not a direct slam on anyone just a slight modification of methods used to come up with a solution.