Is my lighting enough ??

Soueify · Dec 18, 2014

Hey guys! :angel:

My main softy tank is 32" x 24" x 20"

I have a single 70W MH just 8" above the surface, 5000K (the highest K rating I could find, and yes the market is THAT bad :xd: )

Would you consider this lighting enough for a softy tank ? is this considered strong/medium/low lighting ?

Ps. The tank is one of several connected to the same sump, total water volume is about 125 gallons.

Right now all I have in it are some zoas, mushrooms and a white BTA. They have been doing quite well since I installed the lighting about a month ago. The zoas and mushrooms are placed on the bottom right under the lights, and they seem to be doing well and multiplying.

Reefing Madness · Dec 18, 2014

Yea, the lighting is strong enough for softies. Hope your able to get a higher K rated lamp sooner or later though.

mcarroll · Dec 18, 2014

Short answer: Not enough.

Long answer: It depends what your goal is. If just making those corals happy is the goal, and they appear healthy and are reproducing, then that light is fine.

Limits and Suggestions
You will eventually notice that there is a finite area and depth directly under the bulb that is sufficiently bright.

You may eventually notice that your lights are lacking blue spectrum by many corals (maybe not the current ones) having strong yellowish or brownish overtones.

For full lighting coverage across the tank and to it's bottom AND to color up yellow/brown corals you'd do best to at minimum try and acquire some blue (~450nm - common color) LEDs to use as a supplement for the halide.

Good luck!

G_Sanab922 · Dec 18, 2014

Reefing Madness said:
Yea, the lighting is strong enough for softies. Hope your able to get a higher K rated lamp sooner or later though.

I agree with this. I would maybe even put the light closer to the water surface, but should be fine either way. Definitely try to get a higher K rated lamp, if you have access to ebay, I would look there. Might be hard either way since you are in Egypt

Soueify · Dec 18, 2014

Thanks for the help guys! It's difficult to judge where this lighting falls on the low/medium/high range when it comes to intensity because of my limited experience with MHs.

I did search high and low for a higher K bulb on the market but to no avail, even 150 watts the best I could find was 6500K.
If I order one online it will be extremely expensive to order from the US and pretty low quality if I order from China :/ and in both cases it will take quite some time to arrive.
mcarroll thank you for the blue LED supplement idea, this can be achieved very easily! I will add it to my long list of upcoming upgrades!

PS. I was thinking of supplementing with 20,000K florescent bulbs, how would that work ?

EW_Fish · Dec 18, 2014

SE OR DE?
New - aqualine 20000 70W 20K ? Aqua Medic

mcarroll · Dec 18, 2014

If access is good and price seems reasonable, I'd try a Chinese 20K bulb. A lux meter (US$15 from China) will also be a handy tool to judge brightness of any lighting platform. It's intended to measure daylight, but will be accurate enough to be better than guessing!

(Anything between 20,000 and 80,000 lux should be sufficient.)

Florescent blues will work the same, but at 10-12 hours per day will only last 6 months before intensity starts to decline. Even the cheapest, most common LED's natively put out 450nm light, so long term wear and tear is virtually nil....a much better place to put money if the option is there! Less than US$100 in bulbs and sockets from (e.g.) ebay could light your whole tank in LED light with a DIY gu10 fixture like mine, FYI.

-Matt