lighting for planted marine tank?

DRC Archive General Saltwater Discussion
1

so i have water in the tank…and my old PC light on there (2 whites 2 blues)…anyway, i wanted to gut this light out and put in a new ballast and t-5’s…

on my DT downstairs i have a clip on light and a 6500k bulb from home depot which cost about $7 total…

from a cost perspective i can put two or three of these style lights on for $21 and get good growth…or i could spend much more and get better growth and the lighting would look better to the eye.

what do you guys think…i keep thinking maybe t-5 because i do want to keep a coral or two in there in the future…stonies that is, i could probley get by with just the clip on’s if i wanted to only have softies in there…

any thoughts?

2

i get amazing calurpa growth out of just one of those clip on lights with the 6500k bulb, i’d imagine two of those would be fine, good spectrum as well

3

Bellamy would be a good person to ask. Try getting kaptken to comment as well. To be honest I don’t know enough about the topic.

4

i have had various types of caulerpa growing well in a 40 breeder tank for a long time. and some softies too, if i keep the caulerpa trimmed back. I have a home made 3 bar x 39w T5 strip light over the tank. seems bright enough. the tank doubles as a fuge and haven for a couple big tangs, and some mushrooms and GSP.