Planted Bay Tank Newbie - Lighting Recommendations?

[Nickleduc]

Hey, I'm brand new to this hobby. I am a teacher with a saltwater collectors permit in Florida. My plan is to collect animals in the wild, observe them for 30 days and then return them to the wild. My fourth graders will do the catching, learning and observing. The tank is a 75 gallon (4 feet wide). At the moment, all of my water levels are good, and have had two domino damsel fish (bought at the aquarium store) living in the environment for a week. They are eating and seem happy.

My dream is to have native plants, fish and invertebrates in the aquarium. What lighting should I be using. Remember, I am a teacher, so funds are always sensitive. From what I have read LED seem more economical in the long run. So, I am kind of leaning that way.

Thanks for any advice.
Nick

 

[beaslbob]

Unlike freshwater aquariums there are very few actual true saltwater plants.

There are numerous macro algaes that kinda look like plants and do very well at balancing out and stabilizing aquariums.

But the macros are eaten my most saltwater fish and definitely clean up crews like crabs.

One solutions is to partition the tank with macros on one side and the crabs/fish on the other.

I have used inexpensive 4' shop lights with 6500k tubes for most tanks with the exception of sps (hard) corals. Those work fine with 4' tanks like a 75g,

I think you will find that if you setup the tank with macro algaes in a refugium right from the start you should have a highly successful aquarium your students will enjoy.

But that's still just my .02