Are mine good enough???

OK, I went to the a new LFS today. One of my questions was about lighting. I am currently running a new PC and my old PC. All bulbs are new. My old PC has two 55W 10K daylight and two 55W blue actinic. My new PC has two 65W 12K daylight and two 65W '03 true actinic'.

My concern was penetration to the bottom of the tank. It is eighteen inches to the bottom. LFS guy said if I put low maintenance corals at the bottom and medium to high maintenance on the rock at mid to high level, I should be fine.

However, he seemed a little unsure of himself at the beginning. So now I am asking all of you. Whatcha think? Can I get away with it? Or do I need to ditch one of the PCs and DIY some metal halides into the canopy?

Rock on.......John.

 

Ditch it all and get T5s. That way you can keep anything. And you won't have to have so many bulbs, change them so often. I have a Sundial and I love it. Built in timers, fans, moon lights. Good luck. By the way that guy was full of it. with pcs I would stick to softies with that depth.

 

I wouldn't keep anything requiring more than medium light (at 12 inches of depth or less), or polyps and mushrooms below that. And no SPS at all. PCs don't penetrate beyond 12 inches very well.

 

I agree completely, pcs don't penetrate well below 12 in, with t5s you can go up to 20in. if you have your aquascape set up correctly, you can keep several variaties under your lights, but you will need to ensure that corals requiring moderate lighting are placed higher up in the tank