Enough Light?

I have been telling people i had 4x55 power compact lights but i was wrong i have 4x65watt = 4.75 watt per gallon (55 gallon tank). Now my question is, is that enough? The only hard coral i have is a clam, the rest are mainly soft. One of my LFC store told me to get t5 2x65 watt which would cost me like $120 for the two bulbs + power unit, etc. I went to another fish store to see if they had a better price and the guy showed me a small 28 gallon nano tank that had 75 watt t5 and he said that's 3 watt a gallon and everything is thriving (Clams too). He told me its rare to not have enough lighting just make sure your cemicals were good. Reason i went to check for more light beacuse my clam didnt see too happy.

Do you think 4x65 is good 18" deep
Or should i buy another 48" 55watt t5 for $50

 

1) My clam just died. General consensus here was that my PC's were too little light to keep it alive for long (had it about a month-ish)

2) 55's are deeper, right? The light penetrating to the bottom will be better with T5's, and even more so with metal halide.

3) Never trust the LFS.

 

yes 4 watts a gallon is enough

 

Do you have the coralife 4X65 fixture? I have that one on a 25 gallon and I would never attempt to keep a clam or an anemone in it...my corals are thriving though.

 

The clam is prob 6" from the light up high.

Ive had two anemone alive for about 3-4 months with that light, and i just got a few more. Also have a diffrent hard shell anemone for about 1 month. They seem to be happy. (they arent dead) :-D

 

You actually have several hard corals. From what i remember you have a galaxia, a plate and a clam plus the anemones.
Personally i don't think the PC's are enough to penetrate for things like the plate which needs to be on the sand bed. Also anemones need intense lighting, they may be alright now but for longevity you will need to upgrade.

The LFS showed you a nano with T5's? Well T5's are alot better then PC's.
But thats just my opinoin.

 

Both LFC told me Compacts arent much worse than t5. They said they are almost the same but t5's are better (can reach deeper). So if i got one t'5 55" watt 48" long do you think that would do anything?

But i do know everyone has diffrent opinions and that's why im asking for your guys opinions.

 

#1 throw the watts per gallon thing out the door. Not a very good rule to go by. PC's can do ok on a 55 as long as you change the bulbs every 4-6 months. Yes that's alot but it's the truth. I had that same fixture on my 55 for a long time and it worked well for me I kept several types of lps and even some monti up high and it was fine. Didn't get very good color out of the monti but it still grew. As far as having a clame in there, one day you are going to notice it going downhill very fast. That's another sad truth.

 

Both of your LFS are complete morons. PC are way inferior to T5HO. Ask them to explain their reasoning for telling you differently. T5 has more lumen per watt (what your corals like) than MH, let alone PC. They are no where near the same. A 48" 4 bulb T5 fixture is equivalent to a 400 watt MH bulb for future reference.

BTW maybe it's a typo, but the 48" bulbs are 54 watts, each. For a 55 go get a four bulb fixture and you'll be set. Your corals will be livin' it up and you won't have to worry about you anemones or clam dieing.

Hope this helps.

 

i agree not enough quality light for them corals, get the t5 and you will be solid, anyways them pc bulbs are redic. $ to replace, t5's at the most 20 bucks a bulb(and that would be a high end bulb like uvl). plus the option of overdrive ballast upgrades to push the bulbs to 80 or something watts a piece.