Lighting and where to start

[MaggieH]

So I currently have a 150ltr 3 ft tank that has some soft corals, 2 stony corals and 3 fish with a few CUC. I recently bought a second hand 4ft tank that the current residents of my 150ltr will eventually go in. I have real basic lighting on my current tank that are only blue and white which I know is wrong. So I am now slowly going to buy all the equipment I need to keep the new tank in good condition.

I know I need to invest in good lighting but there is so much info out there that I don't want to invest and buy the wrong unit. The other consideration is also aesthetics, I really like the pendant lights but not sure if that will be adequate on a 4ft tank. I also would like more corals in the future when I understand more about saltwater tanks, so again lighting to me is an investment that I only really want to pay for once and it will be enough as my knowledge and expertise increases and I start adding harder more demanding corals and fish.

Whats the preference and what works for others?

 

[Marc2952]

Whats the name of the lights you are using? Also the human eye is very bad at guessing PAR on the tank i suggest renting a PAR meter just to be sure. Soft corals do perfectly fine under 150 par Even as low as 50 par.

 

[MaggieH]

Whats the name of the lights you are using? Also the human eye is very bad at guessing PAR on the tank i suggest renting a PAR meter just to be sure. Soft corals do perfectly fine under 150 par Even as low as 50 par.

Hmmm, I very new to saltwater my current tank is only 5 months old, I knew as soon as I set it up I wanted a bigger tank. So the lighting is very cheap that I had knocking about from all my tropical tanks. I dont even know what PAR is. I want to buy lighting that will be able to provide adequate light down the track as I get more confident