Lighting

Hi, I am new to the reef world and I have a 55gallon with two t-5 HO light fixtures one with 2-54 watt 18000k and the other with 2-54 watt actinic spectrum lights is this good enough for me to have coral and if so what is my range on types of coral.

 

Softies, mushrooms, sun corals, chili corals, maybe sps but they have to be at the very top of your tank.

 

Okay, Thanks for the help.

 

That is awfully blue. Blue spectrums normally provide less PAR. If you had a good brand of 10K-14K bulb instead of the 18K, then I would say All LPS and under. Low light SPS on very top. In your case, I would be worried about the higher light demanding of LPS.

 

I thought 18000k was better than 10000k. The bulbs are power-glo, I was also told by the people at the store to do 2 blue and two of the white is this not right?my tank is not blue tinted when they both are on.Also what is the blue bulb for in a saltwater tank?

Also I have a spare 54 watt 10000k bulb should I take out one on the blues and put it in its place?

 

"Better" varies from person to person. It is a good look normally, but usually has a lower PAR output than a lower K bulb.

6700K is daylight. Very yellow to most
10K is crisp white
14K is blue / white
20K is very blue

Usually the closer you get away from daylight, the less PAR output from the bulb.

The actinic bulbs are used to florescence corals.

You said that yours is not very blue looking. Are you sure yours is an 18K bulb?

 

jonjon is steering you in the right direction... 18K and actinic is awfully blue. Higher kelvin (K) means higher frequency.... Purple to Blue is high frequency. Higher frequency light penetrates deeper into the water. But if you research PAR... you'll find corals need light at various frequencies across the spectrum.... some blue, some green/yellow, etc.

2in10 is the guru of lighting combos... but yours seems very biased.

You should get 2in10's opinion.

Mark

 

Okay I have 2-18k 54 watts, 2 authentic 54 watts,2-6700k 54 watt , and 1-10k 54 watt bulbs at my house how would you recommend a set-up for me. I have two t-5 light fixtures, with 2 bulbs per fixture.

Thank you

 

Are all the bulbs Power-Glo?

 

Stay away from any bulb under 10000K it will fade and/or brown out your coral. If those are Hagen bulbs you can use them but I do not know what their PAR values are. When it is time to change out bulbs I would go with 2 ATI Blue Plus or Geisemann Actinic +, 1 ATI Purple Plus or KZ Fiji Purple or UVL Actinic White and 1 ATI Aquablue Special or UVL AuqaSun. With these bulbs you will be able to keep SPS to mid tank. You should be able to keep SPS on the top with the bulbs you have and Montipora SPS in the mid to upper area.

If you could give the brands of your current bulbs it would be easier to recommend with the bulbs you have on hand.

The Hagen 18000K is a pink bulb like the Fiji Purple.

Didn't read all of the posts so go with below.

I would go with the two blue bulbs the 18000K and the 10000K. Place them front to back blue, 18000k, 10000k and blue.