Need help with lighting

Hello everyone,

In need of some lighting help. I bought an used setup and all of the equiment work except the lighting. The previous owner assured me that it was the bulb, and that I only need to replace it. So I got a new bulb today, only to have it not work. After taking the fixture apart, I realized that he must have dropped it into the tank as I saw clear evidence of food pellets and salt around the inner ballast
I tried contacting him about it, but no such luck.
So now I'm kinda stumped on what sort of lighting to get. My tank is a 46g w/ measurements of 20Lx18Wx30H. I have around 50lbs of LR in a sealed-off SW container (water will be changed every week for the next month).

No plans of having corals yet, mostly fish with a CUC.

 

I don't know what your funding is like, but you could check out boostLED. I've seen a lot of awesome tanks with LED's over them. There are 20" T5 fixtures for sell as well. They should do alright penetrating to the bottom of your tank without losing an PAR. Here is a link for a fixture that I am looking at getting (only I'm looking at the 36"). There is also the Metal halide option, but those run really hot and consume a lot of electricity. I hope this helps you out.

 

I would get a 24" T5HO fixture over the 20" fixture because only the manufacturer of the 20" fixture makes replacement bulbs for it. You will have a little hanging over the edge but will have a much better bulb selection and higher quality bulbs to use on your tank if you keep corals. If you are staying fish only then any type of lighting will do. Go to Reef Geeks to check out the best fixtures on the market for T5HO.

LED is a great option if you have the funds.

 

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll probably go LED, just need to do a lot of searching and research

 

I'm sure that if you type in LED in the search box in the top right that it will pull up a lot of great threads already here for you. I know a lot of members have been using boostLED builds and making DIY projects with them.