48" PC on 75g

I'm just setting up my 75gal and got a great deal on a setup that came with a 48" PC fixture - it looks like its got 4x 65W PCs in it, 2x are 50/50's and 2x are something else (it looks white).

The question is - how far can I go on this before I need to drop the coin for real lighting? I understand that stony corals are probably not going to happen with this lighting, what about softies? The tank is 21" deep, I think.

Also, I'd like a clam someday, but my living room is not really compatible with the Ultra-Super-Fusion-5000 MH fixtures some of you guys have. If I put it up high, like maybe 6" below the waterline, what sort of lighting is sufficient?

 

You will be fine to keep softies as long as you feed them because they arent going to get as much food from the lighting as something more powerful. As far as a clam goes you would have to ask someone else cuz i have MH and don't know alot about PC's sorry

 

you will be fine will softies such as GSP and zoa's, a clam might be ok,but get a derasa clam, they are really easy to take care of

 

Some of the lower light clams would be fine. I started out with pc lights and the clam that I kept grew good under the lights. You will need to keep it higher up though. Here is a picture of the clam while it was under pc lights. I got it at about 3" and when I took this picture it was near 6".

 

Just make sure and change out bulbs every 6 months and buy the UVL brand bulbs. Do not buy actinic or 420nm light at all look for 460nm in your blue light. Pure actinic has very little usable light for corals. You will be able to keep LPS and Monitpora SPS if you put the SPS on the tops of the rocks.

 

x2 on uvl bulbs w/ internal reflectors. 12k actinic white, 14k 75.25 aquablue, or 454nm bulbs

I got the 2 14ks, 2 454nm. love them. bulbs say rated for 4500 hrs. there pc bulbs have the same stuff they use in there t5 bulbs. here's some UVL 454 only pics of my tank..
its a little less blue then those pics now in person.
14k, 454nm pcs lights are towards the front of tank here:



454 only.

 

what type of clam is that? I know the lower light clams are Derasa & Squamosa, but it doesn't look like either?

 

Looks like a crocea to me.