Upgrading

On my 30 gallon long I'm currently using Nova Extreme's SLR T-5's (2 39watt bulbs). I've been using them for about 2 months.

I'm going to upgrade the lighting and was originally thinking about use purchasing the same lighting fixture but one that supports 4 39watt bulbs. After looking I also noticed the Nova Extreme Pro saltwater T-5's which offers 6 bulbs.

My question is this. Is the 6 bulb, 234 watt fixture overkill for my setup ? My current fixture lights up the tank nicely, I'm just looking for something I can play around with as far as bulbs go and with only 2 ballasts I'm very limited.

I only have live rock, some star polyps and an anemone. I don't plan on getting any corals, maybe some mushrooms but that's about all.

 

With the new lighting on your current tank you could keep anything. First, how's your anemone doing? How long have you had it? They require high lighting and your current set up may not be doing the job. Anyways, if your not planning on getting any corals, and we all start out saying that, then this new light would be overkill. I would go with a four bulb setup, you can still mess with the bulbs, plus, still have plenty of light.

 

The anemone is doing great. I've had it for about 2 weeks now and I can tell that it's grown quite a bit already.

With the 4 bulb setup would mushrooms do fine ?

 

Oh also, I'll be adding a few dwarf feather dusters.

 

just out of curiosity, how old is your tank? The 6 bulbs should be fine!! I think it would be safe to say you could keep anything under those lights, since the depth of a 30gal is like 18" or so, right? If so, then you should be golden!!!

 

The tank's going on 3 months old. It's 17" deep I believe.

 

You will probably have to "shade" the mushrooms, it may be too much light for them with the 6 bulb setup, but they may adjust to it. Even with the four bulb setup you could a lot of different things, from any softy, lps and some sps.

 

I purchased two of the 12k Actinic White bulbs and love them. I was using both when I first added my live rock but am currently using one along with a 10k. If I do the 4 bulb setup I can use the two actinic white bulbs with two 10k, a 10k and an 18k or two 18k's.. What do you guys think ?