Lighting Help

[eb_cooper]

My boyfriend and I are new to saltwater aquariums and we're running into a problem with lighting. Mainly because we have no idea what we should be buying.

We are starting out with live rock and fish, and are planning on adding corals at some point in the future if we're successful.

We have a 60 gallon tank that we bought without a hood. Originally we didn't buy a hood because we knew we were planning on using it for saltwater, and we didn't think that a standard hood would work.

We also lease an apartment, so we don't want to install hardware into the ceiling in order to hang these lights.

My question is, do I need to buy a hood? What type of lights should we buy?

[Fizz71]

You lighting requirements will be based on what you want to keep and how much money you're willing to spend. I'm a firm proponent of Metal Halide for SPS corals. Some folks get away with T5s in shallower tanks, and LCD's are on their way up as an alternative. VHOs are fine if all you want are leathers and shrooms and maybe some zoas real close to the surface.

As for a hood...you'll find most hoods are too small in height for MH lighting because it will boil your water (not literally of course) so there's that to consider as well.

[JDL]

you can get some nice t5 setups that are basically a hood themselves. They sit on legs and you can keep almost any coral with them.

[der_wille_zur_macht]

The vast majority of fixtures sold today, regardless of which type of light they house, are pretty flexible - they can be hung, or you can put legs on them and sit them right on top of an open tank.

A photo for illustrative purposes:

http://www.f3images.com/IMD/aquarium_images/lighting_current_usa_outer_orbit.jpg

The other alternative is to build your own tank and use a "retro" kit to install lights in it. This is probably not an option, since if you're living in an apartment you probably don't have a shop full of tools in the basement. :D

Following up on Fizz's first sentence, it's hard to really narrow down recommendations for lighting without having a really firm grasp on your future plans. "We might want corals at some point" is really vague of course; but that's OK. You can pick based on your budget and then "live" with what you'll be able to keep down the road, or if it's going to be fish-only for quite some time (years) then just get a cheap conventional hood and use that until you learn more. Of course if you can afford it, there's nothing wrong with getting a really nice fixture now, as that'll give you the most flexibility down the road.

[thegrun]

If you feel that you are likely to end up getting SPS corals in the future, I would advise spending the money now on either a metal halide light or a high end T5 fixture rather than buying a light fixture that you end up throwing away because it will not support the corals you want to keep in the future.

[SHAKEEL]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15059214#post15059214 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by thegrun
If you feel that you are likely to end up getting SPS corals in the future, I would advise spending the money now on either a metal halide light or a high end T5 fixture rather than buying a light fixture that you end up throwing away because it will not support the corals you want to keep in the future.

That is so true i started out saying i only wanted softies but ended stepping it up everytime and buy stonger lights lets just say i have had every retro lighting system from normal output to halides

[WaterKeeper]

This may help get you up to speed Lighting (http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-12/newbie/index.php).