lighting

good morning everyone.

I have a question in regards to lighting. I don't have the best lighting as I could afford it but I am a little confused with all the 65000k and 10000k.


this is what I have:
Coralife 48" AquaLight Fixture - 2 x 65W

what are the best bulbs I could purchase for my livestock and can you buy higher wattage bulbs for this fixture or only stay with 65watt each?

 

In your situation I would recomend getting 1 Super Actinic and 1 Aqua sun bulbs. You can buy at your lfs. This will give you a start with what you have.

 

I would not recommend any bulb that is labelled with the words "sun" or "daylight". The kelvin value is too cool and you'll end up with algae problems. I would suggest that you get the Coral Life 50/50 bulbs (1/2 white and 1/2 actinic blue).

 

Nemo 79 the 65K is as close as you can get to natural sunlight and is generally accepted as the best for growth , you can go 10k, 14k and all the way to 20k each progressively toward the bluer coloration each bringing out more of the "atnic affect" as I like to call it - causing your brightly colored corals to almost glow in your tank- this is generally thought to be more for show than grow. Your coralife bulbs are most likely 50/50 bulbs half 65k and half atnic which is an good combo to start with . I reccomend adding more lighting as your budget permits if you plan to keep your corals happy - most of the local salt water shops I deal with reccomend 5 watts a gallon or more if you want to keep any sps coral and your current setup is about 2.3 watts per gallon. I hope this answers your questions and good luck with your tank.