What wrong with my lighting?

I am in the process of setting up a 75 gallon, now I have one 96 watt cf from another setup and wanted to add the 4x65 setup to this. This would put me at 356 watts over a 75 @ 4.7watts/g. Would this be consider low or medium lighting? Am i going to be greatly limited as to what I can put in here?

 

I think you could put just about anything you wanted in there with the exception of clams and really light intensive corals. I read somewhere that clams will do ok for a while then fade away and die without metal halides. Milage may vary from tank to tank...
Jim

 

I know that clams require allot of light but at one of my LFS thay have a 10gal reef with 20W of lights i think and a clam that been in there for quite some time now. Its a brown clam and the guy told me that clams that dont have bright colors can survive with allot less light than the ones with bright colors, like the blue and green ones. I dont exactly know how long its been in there but its been a while. Plus im not sure that it would work for anybody... i personally think hes just lucky.

Marc.

 

IMO that would put you in the Med light range. The big advantage (among 100s of disadvantages) to MH lighting is the intensity at a point. For example you have 250W of light emitting from a single point were as with PC lighting you have 65W emitting from a 4' bulb. I know I'm using Watts to explain this and that is not the correct way. PAR (Photosyntheticly Active Radiation) is the only true way to measure and know if your corals are getting the lighting requirements they need. But of course a PAR meter is a very expensive tool and so most Aquarium Hobbiest go by Watts.
There are many successful hobbiests that only use PC or even NO lighting and have kept SPS and clams happy for years. I have found they are the exception to the rule. I am a firm believer that MH lighting is the best way to have success in raising and keeping corals in a home aquarium.
Now based of that. If you goal is to keep LPS, and softies your lighting will be more that adequate. But in the future is you wanted to dabble in the more light demanding SPS of Clams you would be looking at an upgrade.

J

 

thanks, honestly im coming from planted freshwater so identifying particular corals is still eluding me, but i did know that I cant keep the clams. Im a firm believer of staying within your limits and not trying to push the envelope with living things. I would love to get some real nice MHs but dam are they expensive.

 

I used to say the same thing.... but i got a great deal on ebay. 180$ for for 2 250W retrofit kit... ballasts, bulbs, sockets, reflectors.. the whole shabang... you just have to be patient and wait for the good deal.

Marc.

 

WOW Marc that was a good deal. I'm not even going to tell you what I payed for mine

 

Yeah... it was actually 90$ for each... so me and a freind bought 4 of them... 2 for my tank and 2 for his. Mine arent up yet... waiting to switch to my 120gal... But his have been up for a month now and they work great.

Marc.

 

whats the difference from the retro to the normal?

 

[quote author=alphozo link=board=lighting;num=1106320448;start=0#8 date=01/21/05 at 11:24:40]whats the difference from the retro to the normal?[/quote]

The normal if a complete hood with the lights inside, most of the time made out of plastic that you hang or put on top of your tank with legs or something in those makings... a retrofit kit is the same thing except for no hood... its the IKEA version if you want... there made so you can fit them in your already made canopy... in my case i already have a DIY wood canopy on my tank and there was no way my wife would of let me hang lights from the sealing so my alternative was the retrofit. Simply screw or hang or... anyway you want to stick them in your canopy... more for the DIY type of guy to. Hope you got me on this one

Marc.