BTB0923;3298965; said:
Now for lighting....what is the most powerful/beneficial type of light that I can get that won't require me to buy a chiller for the tank??
that depends on what you wanna keep. i'd suggest you take a look at the coral '101s' in the corals and inverts section in MFK. have a look through and see what types of corals you like the look of. then arrange your lighting around them.
also look carefully at the difficulty ratings... some corals have very specific needs. your gonna be on a pretty steep learning curve as is, dont make things even more complicated for yourself
you will also need to make sure you have the correct spectrum of light. i basically run 50/50 white/actinic. most people will also run the same. some people prefer a bluer tank though, as it makes the corals glow up. actinic has UV light in it, therefore certain colours glow up under it.
as a general rule of thumb,
*softies = easy
*Large Polyped Stoney (LPS) medium
*Small Polyped Stoney (SPS) difficult
for you i would suggest soft corals such as mushrooms, zoas, button polyps, green star polyps, leather corals, kenya tree coral. this list is what i have in my tank. all are happy and growing in my 30gal, under 50w of T8 (25w white, 25w actinic). its apparently nowhere near enough light for any photosynthetic coral.... they are all above the halfway point of the tank though, where the light is more intense. i guess the spectrum of the light also plays a major role in my tank.
you can keep corals in more lighting than they need, but generally not less. and as you dont want to run a chiller (i dont balme you), i think T5s would be ideal. that way you can wet your appetite with softies first, and progress to LPS if you want. just slap some more tubes in there if you feel you need to, or can afford to. you wouldnt need a chiller either, and the electric bill wont be rediculous like it would be with metal hailide lighting, which would be overkill on a tank with softies.
i would wait for your tank to establish itself first though. and i would avoid putting anemones in your future reef tank. anemones will move around, and can do damage to corals they touch. its not a case of 'if' either, more a case of when and where to. they are probably the most mobile, of 'stationary' animals.
