New Hood For Lighting

[sh1ppy]

I have to upgrade my lights, and thinking of making a new hood to hold them.
What is the best material, as I dont want to poison my little fishies.
Also what would be the best lighting I could buy for a reasonable price,
How many bulbs and what bulbs would you recomend,
At the moment I only have fish, but want to add corals at a later stage,
The construction of the hood should be easy enough my dad is a wood machinest Tee Hee.
Any way thanks.
Jason

 

[prow]

What is the best material, as I dont want to poison my little fishies.

wood or acrylic

Also what would be the best lighting I could buy for a reasonable price, How many bulbs and what bulbs would you recomend,

huge question. it really depends on what size tank,how deep and what kind of corals you plan on getting. no one best lighting works for all tanks and corals.

 

[cheeks69]

Ditto to what prow said ^^^

We need more details !

 

[sh1ppy]

My tank is 30 gallon 120 litres.
It 1 mtr wide by 31cm depth height of 46cm.
Sorry for cm but thats what is written on the box and I havent got a tape to hand to convert it.

 

[Snelly40]

there are some nice clip on lights being made now as well. i have a viper metal halide 150W or there is a new corallife metal halide as well. either might be a good idea with a 30 gallon tank

 

[prow]

on a 30gal i would not do a canopy, unless you have a sump or skimmer that is pulling outside air in. you might have to deal with poor gas exchange, reduced dissolved O2, big ph swings at night, trapping CO2 ect....lighting still depends on the corals you want to keep. i do have a 20 gal with some lps, mushrooms, polyps and anemones. using just 2X36watt PC's. T5's are great lights also for shallow tanks like yours. you need about half the wattage you would need with PC's. but again bulb wattage kelvin and number of bulbs will/should be determined by the corals you are planning on getting. read up on some of the corals you are thinking of. try to limit it to a certain type; like lps, sps, leathers, polyps, clams ect...can mix to fill bare spots in shaded areas or bright areas and such. but find a few of the same type corals you want and ask this question again but include the type corals you are thinking. you will get a lot more replies about lighting for this type or that type coral and your system.