most ammount of watts for 10g aga

[cape surf rules]

i was thinking about starting a new 10 gallon nano and was wonder what the best ammount of wattage would be to put in it. any input would be gread

thanks

[cape surf rules]

i mean great lol

[Rosseau]

Hello,


welcome to reef central and the hobby in general (if you're just getting in).


There is no real "best amount". Generally more is better.

A few things to consider.

-What is your budget?

-Will heat removal be an issue? i.e. do you have a canopy or is it an open top tank?

-What types of corals do you want to keep? They tend to vary greatly in lighting requirements.

-How deep is your tank? Light decreases in intensity with depth.

Generally I wouldn't recommend getting anything less than 50 watts of power compact lighting. That is getting a little bit low for most corals.

[BLKTANG]

The coralife 96w powerquad is nice.

[cape surf rules]

thats what i was thinking, thanks a ton bro.

[cape surf rules]

rossea, so do you that it would be safe for me to have to have 96 watts of lighting? i would like to keep a good variety of corals in the tank.

thanks

[Kengaroo131]

96 watts should be pretty good but think are you putting LR in the tank?most likly if your getting corals so subtract about 1-2 gallons of water depending on the live rock amount which will bring you down to about 8-9 gallons of water take 96 and divide it by 8 and that leaves you with 12 watts a gallon which is inteanse but should be good for corals. it should work out pretty good for you.

[circusordie16]

watts per gallon doesnt really mean anything but there are plenty of reefs ive seen using 96 watts successfully. if you really want a lot of light you could get metal halide but 96 watts will probably be perfect.

[cape surf rules]

i think ill go to my lfs tomorrow and get the 96w coralife. thanks a ton for the info.

[cape surf rules]

ok sweet thanks

[Rosseau]

96 Watts will not be too much.

keep in mind that a lot of the information on this website (mine inclued) is based on personal experiences. Often these experiences disagree.

But the 96 sounds good, you might be limited later on if you want to get into Anemones, SPS corals and clams. Though certain species will do fine..


really, go with the Quad.

[[17]shawn[17]]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9648775#post9648775 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mariner908
96 watts should be pretty good but think are you putting LR in the tank?most likly if your getting corals so subtract about 1-2 gallons of water depending on the live rock amount which will bring you down to about 8-9 gallons of water take 96 and divide it by 8 and that leaves you with 12 watts a gallon which is inteanse but should be good for corals. it should work out pretty good for you.

IMO the watt per gallon is useless and in some cases very inaccurate you are better off judging how many watts to use by the depth of the tank and where corals will be placed

and i agree the 96w would be a very nice choice. it is a very popular choice on RC from what i have seen

[joedirt54]

I ran a 10gal AGA with 30lbs of LR and corals with a 150w 20K DE aqualight for a year and it was great... and let me jump to my current 30 oceanic cube without buying a thing...might have had 5 gallons of water=30W/gal of water. It was just fine.

I ran a 20H with pc's(2- 55w, blue & 10K) for a while but never did like the color or results.

I am a big fan now of MH pendants and small reefs. There are a lot of tanks you can light with a single MH pendant...5, 10, 15, 20, 30 cube, 37 column, most any hex, 58 cube(2'x2')...pretty much any tank <= 2' x 2' and any coral you want to keep with a single bulb. IMO, you can't beat those shimmer lines with anything else.

Dirt

[G13]

I run the 96 watt corallife fixture and it is a pretty good system.

If I was you, I would consider the 96W Nova T5 fixture. From what I've read T5's are way better then pc lighting.

[Shooter7]

I just hooked up my 150w MH with the phoenix 14k bulb over my 10g last night. Hopefully, over this weekend I can start moving some rock and corals back into it from my holding tank. I really went back and forth trying to decide between the 70w and 150w. Hopefully, this will work well for me. If not, then it's back to the drawing board. :cool: Sure looks awfully cool though.

[Rosseau]

Shooter what MH kit do you have?

[Shooter7]

I got the one from illuming dot com

[cape surf rules]

thanks for your posts guys, todoy i bought all i need including the 96 watt coralife. now it is cycling and i will try to posts some pics soon.