Lighting help for a new reefer

[ShadowBL]

Hello all!

Just started my tank and looking to address the lighting on the used tank I acquired.

It’s a 60gal hex that was originally used for fresh water. It has 3 t8 bulbs that are 18” in length and currently bright white.

The light fixture is part of the tank top so my choice is either to find bulbs that fit with a nice color or just pull the whole top off and run it open. I’m a little worried about running it open and waking up one day to find a fish on the floor so I’d rather find bulbs.

I did some searching and I’m not finding anything that size that isn’t for reptiles or just bright white which I really don’t want as I know the color is important for coral growth not to mention the blues and purples just look cooler.

There were a few called coral blue or something on chewy I thought were maybe blue spectrum light but it said it was for turtles and their plants.


Do I just fold and get led?

Help?

 

[goosemans]

Are you trying to grow coral or just fish

 

[ShadowBL]

Are you trying to grow coral or just fish

It will eventually be both. But I know I’m supposed to wait for some time before introducing corals to the tank.

 

[goosemans]

Honestly I’d scrap that light. Get some fish you enjoy and worry about getting a reef light later. Running a tank without any lighting has a lot of benefits to avoid the uglies all together to give it time to mature. Plenty of used lighting available on marketplace

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

The light fixture is part of the tank top so my choice is either to find bulbs that fit with a nice color or just pull the whole top off and run it open. I’m a little worried about running it open and waking up one day to find a fish on the floor so I’d rather find bulbs.

I did some searching and I’m not finding anything that size that isn’t for reptiles or just bright white which I really don’t want as I know the color is important for coral growth not to mention the blues and purples just look cooler.

A couple of points that may be helpful here:

1 ) You can always swap out the lid for a DIY lid (glass, polycarbonate, mesh, etc.) and use another light.

2 ) The color as our eyes see it (called Color Temperature and presented in Kelvin) isn't actually important except for aesthetics (so if we like how it looks or not). "White" light is actually a mixture of at least three different colors of light (a bluish light, a greenish/yellowish light, and a reddish light; these can mixed in different wavelengths and quantities to achieve the same "white" look).

3 ) What photosynthetic organisms - like corals and plants - care about are the spectrum/wavelengths of the light (so what specific kinds of light are produced by a fixture) and Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density (PPFD; generally, people refer to PPFD as PAR, or Photosynthetically Active Radiation; this is basically a measure of how much light photosynthetic organisms can "feed on" a fixture is producing).



To simplify the above; corals care about what kind of light (the wavelengths) they get and the strength of the light (the PAR values) they get.

So, to see if a light will work, you want to look at the Spectral Power Distribution Chart/Graph (shows basically how much of each color/wavelength of light is produced by the fixture) and the PPFD Chart (basically a map of the PAR output of the fixture).

"White" light with a lot of blue and a little red with some amount of green/yellow will grow corals fine as long as it's strong enough (i.e. as long as it has enough PAR). Just blue light will also grow corals fine as long as it produces enough PAR too.



As a note, Watts are not a measure of PAR, and some lights with high wattage won't work well - again, PPFD/PAR is thing to look for.

Also, one more thing to consider is the IP rating of a light if it's going to be exposed to water, especially saltwater, even if just through hanging over an open/partially open tank (evaporation is a thing to keep in mind). A higher IP rating is better; standard reef lighting options have good enough IP for the job, but some other lights (such as for plants or other kinds of pets) may not.

 

[Jekyl]

I would take time and research and save for something more fitting. I don't think the ballast you have is going to work for the standard T5 lighting.

As you mentioned you have some time before the lights will even be needed.