29gal Tank Lighting Recommendations

Like said before, you should be fine with power compacts(considering only the corals you mentioned before). My personal opinion on the watts per gallon, its just a very general and vague rule of thumb. The reason i say this is because, if you put a coral way up on top, its gonna recieve more light than the corals under your liverock in a cave. If you do achieve 6.5 watts per gallon, dont expect to put a light needing coral in a cave just cause you got 6.5 watts per gallon.
The reason we use watts per gallon is just to have a quick reference on how strong the light system really is.
But lighting is one of the essential need for good reef keeping. I would say the other things you really, REALLY need is a good skimmer, good water flow, and i almost forgot, A GOOD SKIMMER!

 

working on getting the skimmer as we type lol..
gonna go with an AquaC Remora with Maxijet 1200
Thanks for the tips everyone

 

anyone ever heard of Catfish Lighting? They come up alot when doing searches on ebay for power compact lighting

 

Just wanted to post an update:
I ended up going with a 30" Coralife Lunar Aqualight (10,000/Actinic)Seems to be well built and like you could change parts easily if needed (ballast etc).


Question: Do I NEED the legs or are they just there if you dont have glass? I am going to have a piece of glass cut for the room that I have and was just wondering if I could place it directly on that glass without the legs or do I still need them? I dont really want to leave it without a lid/glass because then its just wide open. I dont mind them, but its throwing a big glare in my living room. Plus the water is splashing back up a little bit on the bulb cover because of the filter flow.


Here are some pics.. this is the newer model that includes the legs

Direct view for height perception :


Side view:


Side view of space left on back:


Overhead:

 

The legs are there for two main reasons IMO! One to prevent salt creep and water splashing on the light glass cutting down on the amount of light shinning into your tank! It also helps to cut down the amount of heat generated by the lights even though they have fans!!

 

I put my pc light right down on the top over my 15 gallon. The legs put the light like 5 inches over the tank, and that made the bottom of the tank dark. Plus my room was getting to much light!!! It made no difference in heat, but my corals responded really well. My BTA is loving the light closer....

 

I was thinking of putting a piece of glass from the front of the tank to about 3 inches from rear, just enough for equipment to clear. Do you think it will be a problem if I set the light directly on this glass.. The lights wont be getting as wet as they are now, and almost seems like the more light the better! haha.

+1 Birchell . The light shining in my room is crazy ! its shining all over the place.. its not far from my TV either, so that will be an issue!

 

i have an 80 watt current usa pc fixture, and it has an acrilic shield. I have to wipe it off every few days, but its not a big deal. Just be very careful to not drop the light in the tank!!! It barly fits, lol. Yea my tank is in my bed room, and the lights come on at 8:00am, so light splash is a big deal.

 

oh, your gonna love the moon lights!! The first night I got my light, I had a really hard time sleeping!! They put off a nice glitering affect, and you get to see all the little creatures that come out at night.

 

Even if you add the extra glass, it will cut down on the light(lumens) entering your tank!
Not that you will have the same problem, but I placed my halide pendant on a piece of glass and it shattered the glass due to the heat and water spray!! Live and learn..that sucked as the halide light fell into my tank water!!!! ooops! :-[