Would I have enough light?

please hold off on the nem..95% chance it would just end in disaster.....they need extremely stable water quality..not just salinity..parameters that you don't really have control of..things that just work themselves out over time. You will save yourself a lot of headaches by holding off! TRUST ME!

And switching the bulbs to 10000k isn't necessarily upgrading..6700k is primarily used for plants and such..corals like the 10k better..and besides..no one wants a yellow reef!

edit: and don't worry about PAR values....just know this for now. PC's are lower end..you can get by with shrooms, zoas, a few LPS, etc. T5's are great..you can keep a LOT more under them, but you don't get the halide ripple. Halides you get the ripple and and can keep damn near anything.

 

Welcome!!! You found a great place to learn.You should find out if any copper based additives have ever been used in your tank as this could harm or kill any inverts.If you feel strongly about making this tank a reef I would really advise upgrading your lights now rather than spending any more money on pc bulbs,you'll be glad you did.;D

 

You can keep anything you want with T5's. A high quality 6x54w unit will more than suffice in a 75 gallon tank. I have used PC light and you will definitely want to get 460nm lights to replace the actinics. This will increase the PAR in the tank and not keep fluorescing pigments from showing off. Change to the 10000K bulbs also so your colors will better. Change the PC bulbs every 6 months. Get a T5 or MH unit in a year when your tank is settled and get the anemone.

 

So my dream of this symbiosis relationship in my tank will have to wait?

I hope its not too long a wait.

I don't believe so. The tank has been with me its entire life out the shop. About the only chems I use are Magnesium, Iron, Phosphate, Nitrate.

The majority of the T5s I see around here are only 4 bulbs for 48". would that also work? 4x54 watt?

 

I had a 4 bulb unit on my 45H (22"tall). It could not support a green bubble tip. It moved to the bottom of the tank and slowly died from lack of light.

 

what? lol hopefully you're not dosing nitrate!

I know it sucks having to wait, but I have found out that with this hobby about 75% of being successful is having patience. When you do wait until you have the right lighting and a very stable tank (some say 6 months..i would say a year) you will be very pleased with the results. When I first started my tank I lost a lot of corals. I truly believe that a lot of it had nothing to do with things i could controll (flow, lighting, basic parameters). I think a great portion of it was the fact that my tank was just not ready for them. My tank just turned a year old and I am amazed that I haven't lost any coral or inverts for quite some time. So just give it time! Nothing but bad things happen quickly in this hobby.

Ivan

 

Doesn't sound fun. I don't like waiting.

When I was waiting for my plants to grow in, I was pulling my hair out. LOL
But it was very rewarding. I am looking into a t5 fixture as of now.

Will keep you guys updated.

BTW, I was dosing nitrates every other day or so because the plants were using it up so much.

 

forgot you had freshwater before haha sorry!

 

4X54 watt is the T5 will work if you keep light requiring organisms up high. 6x54 watt would allow you to keep what you want after the tank settles. You really should wait 9 months before you add the nem to allow the tank to settle and you to get your husbandry skills up to the nem's needs.