hard and soft coral lighting

Would this lighting be suffecient for hard and soft coral's?
2X 250W DE HQI Bulb 15K, 4x 65W CF Bulb Actinic Blue

 

yes yes yes

 

awesome thnx

 

Now, you have a 55g right? If so, I can find two things wrong with this choice. One, it is too much. There is a point where you can have too much light and corals will not thrive, in fact, it can do damage. A general rule of thumb is to stay around 5 watts per gallon.

Two, the actinics are CF (PC). They will not penetrate very far into the tank. If you want to go MH, your actinics should be T5s IMO. The actinics are uber-important to coral growth.

 

ugh! the t5z are a couple hundred dollars more. I can see where it could be to much light. Right now I have 2 65w flor 12000k and the 2 65w actinic. I will just leave things as they are and not worry bout more lights and stuff on this tank. I am saving for a 90 and will get it set up tight in hardware first then go from there...thnx....*peace*

 

I will give you my standard fixtures that I think would go over your 55g and possible 90g. I also used to recommend the Nova Extreme Pro, but IMO, the Teks are a better unit and come with top notch bulbs, whereas the NEPs do not. And the price difference is not that great. LED (Moon bulbs) do not come with these. You have to install those separately. No big deal. Easily done for cheap, cheap, cheap.

For your 55g:

http://www.reefgeek.com/lighting/T5_Fluorescent/ATI/Powermodule_Fixtures/48_inch__4x54W_Powermodule_T5_High-Output_Fixture_w!_Bulbs_by_ATI

http://www.reefgeek.com/lighting/T5_Fluorescent/Sunlight_Supply/Tek_Light_Fixtures/48_inch__4x54W_Tek_Light_T5_High-Output_Fixture_w!_Bulbs_(Black)_by_Sunlight_Supply

For your 90g upgrade:

http://www.reefgeek.com/lighting/T5_Fluorescent/ATI/Powermodule_Fixtures/48_inch__8x54W_Powermodule_T5_High-Output_Fixture_w!_Bulbs_by_ATI

http://www.reefgeek.com/lighting/T5_Fluorescent/Sunlight_Supply/Tek_Light_Fixtures/48_inch__8x54W_Tek_Light_T5_High-Output_Fixture_w!_Bulbs_(Black)_by_Sunlight_Supply

Now, you will notice that these are NOT cheap units. Not cheap in price and not cheaply made. The two things you do not skimp on in this hobby are skimming and lighting. The deals on eBay are tempting, but reefgeek has the best prices I have found to date on TEKs. And they include UVL bulbs with them. And yes, it matters what kind of bulbs you get. You are paying for quality. Housing, reflectors, ballast(s), connectors, wiring...everything. These fixtures are designed to last years.

So I would suggest you keep your current lighting fixture and start with some simple corals and let your tank age. You can see by my tank that maintaining some nice, albeit, standard corals is possible under the most suspect lighting. Start putting money away for your fixture. In nine months or so, when your PC bulbs are (well, overdue at that point) needing to be replaced, drop the cash for something you really want. By that time, you may have enough $$ to upgrade to the 90.

Addicted to the hobby aren't you?;D;D;D

 

If th elights are to bright John why not just hang them from th eceiling and raise them higher then build a panel box around to direct the lights into the tank and not the whole room. If they are higher wouldnt that not be to much as campared to standing on the legs that come with the lights...Im not cheap I am on SSDI and poor...I can afford to keep it up I just come up short of getting it built to start with.....Whatcha think man just raise em up higher??

 

I can swing this in a couple months thnx john http://www.reefgeek.com/lighting/T5...t_Fixture_w!_Bulbs_(Black)_by_Sunlight_Supply and ignore the other post...just thinking outloud...After I get the 90 up and running I want to do just coral only in th e55....so the best in lighting is a must....